My son Max has a great fondness for Spiders... I believe he could identify almost any spider that was put in front of him and if not, I know he would soon find out..... One of his favourite species are the Wolf Spiders... He likes their habits and has taught me all I know about them... things like, they don't spin webs.... or make a nest or shelter.... they hide out in leaf litter by day... and are active hunters at night....
They have 8 eyes... 4 large and 4 small... and have excellent eyesight... their markings are varied containing stripes, bands, dots.... they have lots of hairs ... coloring is in the range of gray, brown, and khaki... ¼" to 1½" long... habitat is widespread... worldwide...
...the males perform a courtship dance of leg-lifting for the females... she only accepts him if she likes his dancing... now there is an amusing way of selecting a partner.........
hey, when I come to think about it, maybe we are not that different......... Bet you never knew we had something in common with a spider...
anyway, back to the story...
Max is forever lugging one of these spiders around ... watching one closely... or playing with one.. in the summer that is... of course, I'm dreaming of summer 'round about now...
When Max was learning at home, I let him learn about whatever he wanted... I had no classes... he set his own learning style... I let him indulge his interests as long as he wanted... he would spend hour after hour out in the fields, and he got to know nature close up... he was constantly showing me the things he would discover... It is such a great way for children to learn...
I must admit, I like Spiders too... I would never purposely kill a spider... they are so little and delicate.....
Spiders are beneficial insects... eating many pests such as aphids and flies.
If you have ever seen a spider carrying around its large egg sac attached to its rear spinnerets, that was a Mother Wolf Spider.... They don't bite humans... They are shy and prefer to run away if disturbed...
One thing I can never figure out is... why are people frightened of spiders?.... of course I do not live in a part of the world that has poisonous spiders or I would probably be of a different opinion... around here there is no need to worry about them at all... so why????
... and also... why are people afraid of spiders webs? they are amazing structures...... I mean why in the world would anyone be scared of webs?...................ahhh, the mysteries of Fear....
...can you imagine if you had 8 eyes and 8 arms, what you could accomplish...
...remember when you wished you had eyes in the back of your head.......... I do...
...Wolf Spider watercolors from my sketch book... approx. 4"x 4" each... pen and ink and watercolor wash...
