Published by: Digital Schools
The Spider Diary - Part 2: Red Mites & Brilliant Eyes
Who, whom, was this gorgeous spider lady? And how is it she seems to see me?. In a swift instance, the sight of the lady jumping spider had sent the blues away. And we sat in equal curiosity, eye to eye…
By Emily Rack , Horatio’s Jar
Part:2
I looked at this creamy cute looking critter who had big round eyes, banded colour of chorale browns, black and maroons on her body, and fuzzy mitten pedipalps that waved up and down at me. Her back body was long and tear-shaped and extended straight back, her head helmet-shaped and hard. Her eyes like little iridescent marbles, flashed and changed as chameleons shift. She was gorgeous and seemed very interested in me too.
She bounced down the garden wall to get a closer look at me, moving her head side to side to take me in with all of her eight eyes. On deciding I must be alright, she bounced back up to her home, a hideaway between two leaves where she could peer out without being noticed too easily.
I peered inside her little tiny world and saw this lady spider was soon to be a mother. I saw a bundle of silk and unhatched babies in her nest, and I am sure she seemed a little bit nervous and bid closer to her cluster while I looked. So I gave her a little space.
Maureen, the little jumper spider, pocked her head back out, hopped onto the leaf above and I watched her curiously examine a red spider mite that seemed to be her buddy.
She looked at this pin tip sized critter and took it in. She popped and sprung to different stories in her canopy of leaves, and her red mite followed. At one point, Maureen stopped and scratched behind what would be where ears should be, and it was honestly no different from watching a dog scratch its flees; it was too cute.
And this had me wonder, was Maureen’s red mite a friend or an irritation?. The way she looked so curiously and so intently at the microdot of red was so un-spider-like.
I also wondered exactly how well can she see?
To be continued.
