Arachnophobia

Day 361: Arachnophobes, avert your eyes! My botany partners insisted that I post this since it was such a large specimen. I would have felt better about it had it not been walking up the wall right beside my front door, but there you have it. I wasn't going to inquire further into its personal information. I did step out a second time to measure it. Even with its legs bent more than they are here, it was an inch and a half from tip to tip. Had it raised a foot in my direction, I probably would have leapt so far I'd have come down in Canada. What is it that inspires arachnophobia in so many humans? I know that mine is due in part to having grown up in Black Widow country, and saw my mother's reaction when she found one in the corner of my sandbox as she let me out to play one morning. After her initial panic and frantic shrieks, she called my father home from work to dispatch it. Even now, I react strongly when even a small spider gets on me. (Footnote: I have been advised that this is NOT a Wolf Spider, but perhaps a species of Orb Weaver.) (Update: identified as Araneus saevus, Fierce Orb Weaver.)