Say "hello" to Austracantha minax.



& now say "goodbye", because this little lady disappeared sometime the last week!

This spider is nicknamed the Christmas Spider for obvious reasons & the only thing missing is some twinkling lights to get completely festive. She appeared during November & even though quite small, is easy to spot with her spikes & colours & the web is also distinctive with little clumps every inch or so along every strand. It's rather flamboyant for something I would normally squash in a heartbeat. Yes, I am an Arachnophobe!

I refer in the "female" sense because the male is quite supposed to be quite tiny in comparison, whilst this one is around a centimetre long. Anyway, how could something wearing this sort of garb be anything but a chick?!

We had one in the garden last year as well, which hung around for three months or so & then vanished in the same manner as this one. They aren't aggressive & with some contortionist moves, I was able to snap photos as close as a couple of centimetres away without it lunging it's fangs in my direction.