MY WEEKEND WITH A RAIN SPIDER
One rainy Saturday morning a few weeks ago, I was having coffee with two guests discussing tourism and tourism initiatives in our beautiful region.
Outside on the deck, we found a very wet and miserable rain spider unable to move.
Like a superhero from a Marvel movie, one of my guests, Jolanda, scooped her up and brought her inside. Bare hands! Absolute admiration. There, she (the spider) was carefully placed on a soft pad of kitchen roller towel on my coffee table.
Now normally, such a close encounter with a big, hairy, and scary creature would have sent me running for the hills, having been known as someone who darts eyes across the ceiling every time I step into a room in fear and sheer horror at the presence of a rain spider. But this spider was in need of help, and a promise was made on the departure of my guests that I would try my best to nurse her back to health, to allow her the space to recover, and to give her a fighting chance of survival. What had happened? That is best left to spider specialists. A bad moult and immediately caught in the rain or an abandoned spider-catching wasp hunt are likely explanations but purely speculative.
Saturday, Day 1: was spent observing her. She could not move except for occasionally lifting all of her legs in an upward motion whenever I walked past her. She remained motionless for most of the time, and her stress levels were kept to a minimum.
Sunday, Day 2: She survived! Having absolutely no idea what I was doing, I took the smallest and finest paintbrush, dipped it in some water, and gently painted the parts nearest to her mouth, which happened to be around her fangs. A recently dead mosquito didn’t stir her appetite.
By Sunday evening, she had regained some of her strength, fell off the coffee table, and dragged herself along the floor but did not move far.
At this point, I looked for a suitable relocation jar, placed it in her general vicinity, and left her alone.
Monday, Day 3: By Monday morning, I found her inside the jar. She must have felt that this was a good place for safety and comfort, still being so vulnerable. Two hours later, she started to show some excellent progress by crawling on the outside of the jar, regaining her strength, falling off sometimes, but getting straight back up.
Monday afternoon, she was ready to go back to the garden. This was the last photo taken of her before we said goodbye. This was a rewarding experience, and dare I say, it helped me to overcome some of my phobia and gain a new perspective on these beautiful spiders.
What did I learn? Key differenc
es between male and female rain spiders.
Pedipalps: the male pedipalps (right) are used as a reproductive organ. Female spider pedipalps are smaller and less specialized (left).
Abdomens: the male abdomen (right) is smaller and thinner than the rounder abdomen of the female (left).
Liezel Bohdanowicz