I went to a party at a decidedly rural location in Mississippi, about an hour's drive from NO. The hostess lived in a hundred-plus year old house that used to be the local post office, quite a way down a lonesome highway near the Pearl River. Six acres that were alive with red and golden-yellow lycoria radiata--in these parts they're almost a weed. Gorgeous, though--she said she once even had some beige ones. An odd cross? Anyway she also harbored (and fiercely protected) golden orb spiders--we were warned where NOT to go so as not to disturb their webs. Well, she was our hostess and they were "her" spiders, I thought tolerantly--then thought again when I got a close look at one of the nearer spinners: its yellow body was the size of a 50-cent piece and its legspread must have been 3 inches. Yeoooow! Another invitee mentioned that the golder orb was "the least venimous spider of its size in Louisiana." zemedelec
- posted
20 years ago