October 16th, 2007
surprise! look what i found in my towel!
Saturday morning, while packing up our gear after a couple of nights spent at Richardson Grove in the redwoods, I got a small surprise when this spider climbed out of a towel sitting on the picnic table (click on all photos for larger views). Looks like some species of Tarantula, but I don’t know which one. I knew that there were Tarantulas in California, but didn’t know there were any in the Redwoods. As you might guess, I wasn’t afraid, but actually kind of excited. I’ve only ever seen captive Tarantulas, so it was pretty cool to find one on its home turf.
On our way out of the park that day, we stopped to talk to an employee who was doing some maintenance work and told him about the Tarantula. He laughed and said, yes, there are some around, along with rattlesnakes and scorpions. He mentioned that he finds scorpions in the washrooms almost every day.
Also seen while camped at Richardson Grove was this truly spectacular Harvestman (Opiliones). It was the largest one I’ve ever seen. My friend found it wandering around over a grocery bag.
My friend also found this interesting pair — a spider and cricket perched side by side on the wall in one of the washroom. I believe the spider is probably some kind of wolf spider — we found a few like this — all quite large.
As was the case with the moths the washrooms turned out to be a great place to look for spiders. These two large orbweavers (above and below) were found hanging about on the outside of the building.
I found quite a number of these white and brown spiders suspended upside down on webs woven in the corners of the wooden fence around the washrooms. They looked a bit like the very tiny hammock spiders we see at home, only much larger. If anyone happens to know the identity of any of the above spiders, please do post a note in the comments.
Tags: Tarantula, Richardson Grove