Cupboard Spider (Steatoda grossa) (3/7)

Araneae: Theridiidae

Steatoda grossa  

I was washing my hands in the bathroom when I first saw Brownie wandering along the wall. A quick trip to the kitchen for a small container and suddenly his wanderings (I think it's a he) were severely curtailed.

He wasn't happy in the container, possibly concerned about the risk of BPAs in the plastic or something, but he could make no more progress up the slippery sides than a hamster on a wheel.

In any case, as I told my new friend, Brownie, he was safer inside the container than out. I tried to explain to him that he should be grateful to me, that a daddy-long-legs (I'm not going to call it Daddy) occupies a corner of my bathroom and has been patiently awaiting dinner for weeks now, and is getting rather hungry.

Brownie might look tougher than my delicate-looking live-in daddy-long-legs but the latter would quite happily take him on, and my money would be on the Daddy (it's okay if I say the Daddy). Even take on a Red-back Spider, would the Daddy!

Daddy (there, I've done it) uses its long legs to start wrapping a foe (read menu item) before the foe can get within retaliation distance, and quickly renders it incapable of defence before moving in to give the foe (now a packaged meal) a venomous little nip, and possibly a kick too.

I freed the still ungrateful Brownie outside in the bushes after a short photographic session. Now I just have to tell my tenant in the bathroom that dinner may be a few more weeks yet.