Help identifying spider

HapticSimian said:
A few months late on that one, but it does indeed. Thanks for the correction - I'd never even heard of velvet spiders. :)
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YW, they're mostly harmless but there was a recent article in one of the SA publications where someone's dog died and they found a velvet spider in it's blanket so they were cautioning that there could be more to them than we understand. I don't think they're dangerous myself.
 
Jeez thanks everyone, can't believe i revived this thread :P honestly i also dont think it's a rain spider. I've looked at many photos of rainspiders and none look like the one i found this morning, I've heard someone at work say that maybe it's a wolf spider, but I'm also not entirely convinced thats what it is. It does seem a bit bulkier than a rain spider
 
THEfonz said:
Jeez thanks everyone, can't believe i revived this thread :P honestly i also dont think it's a rain spider. I've looked at many photos of rainspiders and none look like the one i found this morning, I've heard someone at work say that maybe it's a wolf spider, but I'm also not entirely convinced thats what it is. It does seem a bit bulkier than a rain spider
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Look anything like this?

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vs

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iaywtimnbe said:
Female golden orb web - nephila species. Beautiful spiders. My son loves them. Pretty much harmless though they look impressive.

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Do yourself a favour - tug on the guide threads of it's web... the big yellow ones... they are incredibly thick.
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iaywtimnbe said:
Female golden orb web - nephila species. Beautiful spiders. My son loves them. Pretty much harmless though they look impressive.

Do yourself a favour - tug on the guide threads of it's web... the big yellow ones... they are incredibly thick.
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Just an interesting fact:

The Golden Orb Web Spider is not the largest spider, but makes the largest and strongest web.

The web can run from the top of a tree 6m high and up to 2m wide. Unlike other spider webs, the Golden Orb Web Spider's web is not dismantled often and can last several years.

Designed to catch large flying insects, the web is slightly angled. It is not a perfect wheel and is usually off-centre. To make its web, the spider releases a thin thread into the wind. When it catches on something, the spider walks along it trailing a stronger non-sticky thread. It repeats the process in the centre of the line to form a strong Y-frame. Around this, it spins the rest of the web out of sticky capture silk.

The silk is so strong that it can trap small birds, which the spider doesn't eat. These trapped creatures often destroy the web by thrashing around. To avoid such damage, the spider often leaves a line of insect husks on its web (like the safety strip across glass doors!); or builds smaller barrier webs around the main web.
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Hey hey hey. Good news, my friend help me caught that little critter after we had to turn over the house to find it (was sitting behind the toilet scrubber) and found out it was actually a tarantula IMG_20140131_175717.jpg

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THEfonz said:
Hey hey hey. Good news, my friend help me caught that little critter after we had to turn over the house to find it (was sitting behind the toilet scrubber) and found out it was actually a tarantula
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Isn't a baboon spider basically a specie of tarantula....just with an African name?
 
Re: the opening post, I found these while going through pics on my hard drive - this female lived in our garden for some time before disappearing one day. I'm not sure if the gardiner had had enough or if our resident Burchell's Coucal had her for breakfast.

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