Re: Brown Recluse

Barry Meyers-Rice (barry@as.arizona.edu)
Sun, 25 Jul 93 22:48:34 MST

>I picked up a Mimosa (sensitive plant) today at Rod McClelland today.

Tom, I think that if you treat it like any houseplant you will do
just fine. I remember when I was a tyke, I grew those plants to
flowering without difficulty, and did nothing special but treat it like
a houseplant. I also tried to grow VFTs the same way back then, with
er, less successful results.
I visited Hawaii some time back and found a sensitive legume growing as
a weed all over. Earl Nishiguchi in this group was good enough to tell me
that the local name for the plant is Hila-hila which means shame or
embarrassed. I grabbed some seed and after several months it germinated
and is been a weed here too!

Michael, I actually thought we do have the recluse spider, but in small
numbers. Maybe not. As you mention the black widows are all over---I saw
a big fat one today, for instance, and didn't think a bit about it.

Of course, we also excell at tarantulas, scorpions, and Cnidoscolus!
And the semi-mythical cone-nosed beetle...

>person is too large to eat and will usually not bite if left alone. My former
>teacher has had one walk the length of his body, inside his clothing, without
>biting.)

AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

>Could someone describe the appearance of a black widow? Are they
particularly John, Black Widow spiders are distinctive, at least in the
US. The have a large abdomen, and are shiney black overall their parts.
Their legs are not hairy (at least from the distance I view them!), but
I'm sure our entomologist colleague Gordon Snelling would correct me on
this feature. The characteristic red marking on their abdomen is in the
shape of an hourglass or bow-tie. As Michael noted, they hang
upsidedown in their web all day unless you pester them. If you do this,
they panic and race crazily to the nearest hidey hole. They are quite
docile. I have read a few articles which suggest that the female's
habit of always eating the mail after fertilization is greatly
exaggerated.

B