Comments for The Atavism

Comment on Lawrence Krauss on a bad day by Jayson

Jayson — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 23:10:46 +0000

I attended both of the lectures and was happy to see a St David Lecture theatre full for the first talk. They were both very interesting lectures.

Comment on Sunday Spinelessness – Survivor by Brendan Moyle

Brendan Moyle — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 23:04:17 +0000

as an addendum, I still identify various arachnids from time-to-time for people. If you’re prepared to catch the thing and send it to me at Massey, I could easily narrow it down.

Avondale spider is a Sparasid fwiw, and this looks nothing like that.

Comment on Sunday Spinelessness – Survivor by David Winter

David Winter — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 22:52:32 +0000

Oh, cross posted with Brendan. I told you he’d be more helpful!

Comment on Sunday Spinelessness – Survivor by David Winter

David Winter — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 22:51:38 +0000

Hi Jayson, Brendan might still be able to help you out but it's too tough for me! It certainly looks huntsman-eqsue but from what I can see in your photo the arrangement of eyes doesn't match the one huntsman species that has established itself in NZ, the so called "Avondale spider" and I don't think that's recorded from down here anyway. It's definitely possible that it's something else entirely but, to be on the safe side, MAF Biosecurity might want to check it out. You can contact them here

Comment on Sunday Spinelessness – Survivor by Brendan Moyle

Brendan Moyle — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 22:41:39 +0000

The arrangement of the eyes, carapace and chelicerae suggest an Agelenid, but I’m really afraid I can’t pick out any smaller details that would narrow the classification down.

Comment on Sunday Spinelessness – Survivor by Jayson

Jayson — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 22:15:37 +0000

Here is another view from a different angle. http://picasaweb.google.com/JaysonHoogy/DropBox?authkey=Gv1sRgCN31vI6r2brTQg&pli=1#5447131268909353522 it has a better view of the front of the spider. Hope this helps you.

Comment on Sunday Spinelessness – Survivor by Brendan Moyle

Brendan Moyle — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 21:54:23 +0000

Not a lot of detail there Jayson. I think I can see the enlarged pedipalps of what should be a male spider. A bit more information on the arrangement of the eyes and chelicerae would help…

Comment on Sunday Spinelessness – Survivor by David Winter

David Winter — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 04:36:24 +0000

Hi Jayson, That's a very fine spider, I can't identify it from what I already know so it'll be good excuse to pull out the Big Spider Book when I get home :)

Comment on Sunday Spinelessness – Survivor by Jayson

Jayson — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 03:31:27 +0000

I quite like spiders and recently had a spider in my sink that was huge for Dunedin. My guess is that it was a huntsman of some kind. http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/MWdWDftOBgeY4JMi3nWwbg?authkey=Gv1sRgCN31vI6r2brTQg&feat=directlink

Comment on Sunday Spinelessness – Arachnophobia by David Winter

David Winter — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 20:35:40 +0000

PS. is this shot scary?

my monkey brain says yes!