In article ,
"The Ranger" wrote:

[Posted separately to ba.garden, too. -- TR]

I was out during an unusually warm evening attempting to reduce the
number of pests through direct conflict that generally feast on my
garden and trees unfettered from human contact. I was providing this
vigilante-style justice to several snails, slugs, pincher bugs, and
beetles when I ducked my head into a heavy silken thread stretched the
six feet from my persimmon tree to one of my cars.

This type of steel-cabling has usually been a good indicator of a black
widow's presence. But the Shelob that greeted me from the middle of her
tram was not black nor did she have the tell-tale hourglass in the
abdomen. This Behemoth was orange and gray! It had a bulbous body like a
blacky but wasn't aggressive.

I've just read an article in Discover Magazine on spiders in the US and
immediately thought of the hobo spider. Has anyone else run across this
spider or can you provide any other information on it?

The "Arachnophobic" Ranger

PS: She was FAST! Before I finished staring at her, she was back in the
persimmon tree and gone for the night.



Don't be such a girl...... ;-D lol
--
Om.

"My mother never saw the irony in calling me a son-of-a-bitch." -Jack Nicholson