Huge, scary spider in the neighborhood! Orb-weaver spider.

Read in Swedish: Aldrig sett något liknande - fruktansvärt stor hjulspindel!

I got a smaller chock yesterday when I happened to see this HUGE spider in his web, not far at all from our home here in Hersonissos, Crete! I had no idea it exists so big spiders in Greece.

Check it out!

The flowering plant is a planted Lantana camara.

The body is 4-5 cm! It belongs to the spider family Araneidae, Orb-weaver spider. They are said to be harmless.

I photographed it from the underside of the body as well and as you can see it has a pattern there of a death's head! His name is now Max Spider and I feel a little sorry for Max as he has lost one leg.

Have a wonderful day!

Other posts about spiders:
MONSTER spider...
Really grose spider! Huge!

Brimstone - bright yellow butterfly

Read this post in Swedish: Tjoho! Har fotat en fjäril...! 

I think it's so difficult to get pictures of butterflies. They flutter around the whole time, at least the Greek ones...!

Now finally I have photographed a butterfly!

The name of this yellow butterfly is Common Brimstone. Gonepteryx Rhamni in Latin and the Greek name is Thiáfi.

When they finally decides to settle down they will do it with their wings closed. The underside of the wings has camouflage colour! These butterflies are very difficult to spot - it looks like just another leaf.

The top of the wings have a very beautiful bright yellow colour. There is a saying that says the name butterfly is from this butterfly because of it's colour.

This is a common butterfly in the whole Europe and you find it in Africa and Asia as well.

Other posts might of interest:
Cicada - Τζιτζίκι
Squirting Cucumber and a colourful ladybug
MONSTER spider
Really grose spider!

Cicada - Τζιτζίκι

Read in Swedish: Cikada - Τζιτζίκι
 

This is how it looks...the cicada which is so noisy in Greece. Τζιτζίκι (Tzitzíki) is the Greek name of this insect. Sometimes their loud sound can drive you crazy!

The male ones are singing so beautifully (ironic!) to attract females. Some cicadas produce sounds up to 120 decibels (pain treshold!)! You can actually become deaf if a cicada would sing straight into your ear. The males turn off their own hearing while they are singing, the scamps!

They are almost impossible to trace as they blend completely with the surroundings, at least in dense vegetation. I have also noticed that they become quiet when you come walking, but they can not keep quiet that long...

You can apparently eat this insect - in many countries it has been common and in northern China fried cicadas is a delicacy. Maybe one should try that, to get some peace and quiet...!

Squirting Cucumber and a colourful ladybug

Read in Swedish: Sprutgurka och färggrann nyckelpiga!

Check out this beautiful insect which seems to be a kind of ladybug. "Look here!" my son Alex said, and pointed at a really small green insect. Later when I  was looking at the pictures on the computer I noticed the beautiful colours! It was so tiny and I should have needed my glasses to see it clearly like this...

Maybe you wonder what kind of plant the ladybug is sitting on? It's a Squirting Cucumber or Ecballium Elaterium in Latin. "Πικραγγουριά" (Pikrangoriá) in Greek.

The pictures above are taken now and the ones below in November.

This is a creeping herb which grows throughout the Mediterranean, for example by the roadside. At all these pictures the fruit is unripe. It ripens during the summer and then the fruit becomes yellow, and listen now!:

When it's yellow and ripe it explodes at the slightest touch and squirts poisonous juice and seeds in a beam of up to 3 meters!

So WARNING - very irritating to the skin, and what happens if you get this in your eyes...?!?

It's good that the thorny fruit and the hairy leaves are quite scary...

The plant has been used a lot in the folk medicine since the Ancient Greece, even though people were aware of that a overdose could lead to death...! Ugh, how nasty!



Πικραγγουριά (more information in Greek)

MONSTER spider...

Read in Swedish: MONSTERspindel

My treat! A few pictures of another Greek spider...(not as big as the other one though)!

It's not upside down even if it might seem like it is. Really strange with a shiny metal-like bib...and with stearing eyes this one as well...whew! They are so fast also. It will attack me anytime I was thinking...fun to be worsted of one like this and stuck in cobweb!

To photograph spiders might be a good therapy if you have spider phobia...

No but what on earth...what kind of monsters do we actually have around us...?! Of course they are thinking the same thing about us probably...

Went back to check if it was still there a couple of days later and now I got a more visible picture. It also had something red behind...?! 

As you can see now the metal-like is the head! Or the face anyway. Or a face mask...

(Isn't there any spider expert out there in the cyber world who can tell us more about these spiders?)

Other posts about spiders:
Really grose spider! Huge!

Huge, scary spider in the neighborhood! Orb-weavver spider

A funny spider blog: Amy's 365 spiders!

P.S Have been reading and looking around a little and as far as I can see there are no spiders with deadly poison in Greece. We appreciate that!

Really gross spider! Huge!

Read in Swedish: Riktigt läskig spindel! Jättestor!

Ugh, it was stearing right at me - thought it was going to jump at me...(I've always had a little spider phobia...)!

It is sitting there in the middle of the picture. Can you see how big it is?! It was huge! Big robust body, about 3 cm without the legs...

We also had an albino-spider at the washing-line the other night...

(It was another colour in the reality of course, it became like this from the flash.) My gosh, when you're scrolling down it's exactly like it's moving...

Other posts about spiders:
MONSTER spider...

Huge, scary spider in the neighborhood! Orb-weavver spider

I've got a book with some spiders, but these two are not among them, so I can't tell which kind it is.