Tweets--

Thanks (again), M Price, for posting the "bug notes." I still maintain
that, all things being connected, an occasional non-bird post is highly
appropriate for Tweeters.

That said, I also have a question along this vein.

>... Pretty unmistakeable: though they're slightly smaller than
>the big leggy house spiders (Tegenaria?) which occasionally startle as one
>lopes across the floor, they're definitely more muscular, like a small
>tarantula or big wolf spider, with midnight black head, carapace and legs,
>small brown bulbous abdomen.

Sorry, Michael -- I've seen those spiders but don't know what they are,
either. And would like to know. My question has to do with those BIG BIG
leggy guys which audibly gallop across one's floor of an evening, often 3"
or so in leg-spread. They are rather attractive, just long of leg and
engendering heeby-jeebies in those so inclined. (In this case, all spiders
are welcome in my house, though the webs are cruelly swept down on
occasion. Hubby still likes me to escort some of these Big Guys outside
once in a while, mostly when they leave the floor for couch-scrambling
heights. One year we actually had names for the individual spiders, but
this year there are too many for that...) Are they indeed _Tegenaria_ sp? I
never saw one until we moved to Port Townsend, even though spider tolerance
is long-established in our household, and I taught a spider class to some
kids in Oregon long ago and far away...

-- Janet Hardin
Port Townsend, WA
wings at olympus.net