But, no, I'm serious... bananas!
This bunch were just being unpacked, on their way to the fruit bowl, after I had a trip into town to purchase a few comestibles.
Seems like I got a bargain, as there was a wee free gift with this bunch...
Not being too sure what it was (insect pupa/spider egg sac), or where in the journey it might have originated (Colombia/UK/Orkney/anywhere in between), I decided to contact a local expert... local to Orkney, I mean.
I could've predicted her reaction...
"Can I have it?"
As I was only too happy to not have it, after taking a few more photographs, I jumped into my car with said banana and delivered it over to L's place. I may have glanced nervously at the banana a few times during the trip.
So, I'm not sure how pale and ashen my appearance was when she answered the knock on her door, but her opening gambit did quickly bring back some colour to my cheeks.
Just what is the appropriate language for a banana and egg exchange?!
I am assuming that the black bits are frass left behind by either the spider or maybe a parasitic insect, so who knows what's in there? Well, we will see. L will box up the egg sac to see if anything has survived the journey and so might hatch out.
Watch this space...
And, yes, I am very hoping that the mum-to-be isn't lurking in the boot of my car or somewhere in our kitchen!
In the interests of preserving the sanity of any arachnophobes reading this post, I haven't put in any links to pictures of spiders, Brazilian Wandering ones or otherwise. Also, on other grounds, I would caution against an internet search for 'four hour erection'.
12 comments:
Oh my god on several counts.
M thinks there may be a market for that spider bite....
Sorry about that, possibly too much information, eh?
M could well have a point!
I have just checked out the Brazilian wandering spiders on the interweb. Yikes. The egg sac on your banana does look very like those pictured. Will be interesting to see if anything hatches out. I resisted the temptation to look up four hour erections.
Perhaps I've had a close shave?
I've resisted temptation to look anything up. But I bet you this blog will get a lot of 'reads', rather like several years ago when if memory (which isn't very good) serves was about selling the 'Discovery' or as you used the shorthand 'Disco'.
JD, flippin' heck, you have been paying attention! Sadly, I suspect that wildlife isn't quite as popular as puns, double entendres and out-and-out smut.
Oh, this made me laugh!
And, made me remember an incident 20 years ago when I was working as the entomologist at the CMNH. I got a call in January about a large spider an older couple had been keeping and feeding(?!?) in their garage. She described it as huge - nothing new, as most people have a fear of spiders. Given it was January in Cleveland (read: freezing temperatures night and day), I privately held some disbelief of her description. When they brought it in, I was flabbergasted. It was way larger than the palm of my hand, legs included. Holy Moley. This spider held a lozenge-shaped egg sac under her belly. As I tried to transfer her from the cute kiddie insect container to a petri dish to take a look under the scope for ID, she jumped and made a break for it. I chased her around the lab, over and under tables, with two petri dishes in hand. She was fast! Given the newness of the internet at the time, I was only able to ID her as a giant crab spider (now I know she was a Heteropoda venatoria). After some discussion, I discovered this older couple had spent a couple months down in Florida in their RV; people like this are typically called snowbirds here in the US. They likely bought bananas and brought an unwilling hitchhiker back north to Ohio in their RV. Since the couple didn't want her anymore, I ended up giving her to an eager grad student.
Your egg sac is not like my experience. Hopefully, you don't have the parent in your car.
That's one heck of a holiday souvenir!
Don't you be too sure Mr Tense - there's even some email systems that will block an innocent email if it refers to members of the Parus family, or the colloquial name of a male black grouse or that bird related to the cormorant. The latter is also a favourite for schoolboy humour when one refers to what they have seen - remember naturalists and particularly birds always 'have' or 'had' a .......
There was also a famous mistake in text layout of an old issue of Birds** when text in one line finished: '...Dave and started in the second line with 'Dick head of ..........
**ah those were the days, when we had a proper name for our publication, before we went all lower case
jd, yOU DON'T SUPPOSE THAT THE rspb NAME CHANGE WAS AN UNINTENDED ERROR WITH A caps lock KEY?
Probably was
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