On May 11, 5:50*pm, (Nick Maclaren) wrote:
In article ,Des Higgins writes:

|
| | Wolf spiders (genus Pardosa from Lycosidae) are small (body about
| | small or medium finger nail size) and dark and run around. =A0They catc=
| h
| | prey on foot so to speak and you seem them all over when the soil is
| | open. =A0They run very fast and the females often carry bags of eggs
| | attached to their rear ends. =A0You do not get them much indoors..
|
| The ones in my childhood were body about walnut size, and you did get
| them indoors. *Scary but harmless - unlike the snakes and scorpions!
|
| I take it from this, you were brought up in a zoo or Australia?

Nope. *Try Africa :-)

Ooops :-)
They probably do not get scorpions in Oz.
Anyway, you get good spiders in Africa too, I am told.


| It is very hard to have a sensible conversation about venomous animals
| with Australians in the room. *They are apt to interject with
| statements like:
| "the ones back home are the size of a dog and will take your leg off
| clean at the knee as soon as they look at you."

Indeed. *They do have a point that they do have some seriously venomous
animals, though not as much so as they often make out. *However,
compared with many Merkins, who think their cuddly little wildlife is
dangerous, they are paragons of rationality.

Of course, the Little Englanders who get paranoid about even the most
harmless creatures (such as vipers and lynx) are beyond hope.

Vipers I can understand.
Small flies and Woodlice scare some people.






Regards,
Nick Maclaren.