So there I was last night, sitting at my perch near my open window, tapping away on my laptop, as is my wont, when I spotted some movement out of the corner of my eye.
Blow me down, if it wasn't a mature (and quite nice looking) specimen of Latrodectus hasselti, more commonly known as the Redback Spider:
She's a good-sized female, and was engaged in creating the vertical threads of a new web when I most impolitely intruded wth camera and light, running away and hiding by the time I'd got in a few good shots.
Now, these little babies are moderately to very dangerous, and while I'm confident I'd survive a bite with little more than a day off work and some painkillers, I do have a slightly more frail girlfriend and several pets in the house, so for now the window is closed with her firmly on the outside where she can do no major harm. I plan on removing her at some point, once I figure out a safer spot for her to go, though I suspect where she is now may in fact be the safest if the window stays closed. I'd be reluctant to kill her off, that's for sure.
Regular readers may recall I'm a bit of an arachno-geek from previous posts. This is the first (confirmed) redback we've had at the St Peters house, though I've run into them before. Of the triumvirate of common, dangerous spiders, I'm only to meet the notorious Sydney Funnel Web in the flesh (or possibly 'in the chitin'). I've met hundreds upon hundreds of less dangerous spiders in this crazy and quite venomous country, but I have to say I'm quite taken with this one...