Wasp spider

It's clear where this large spider earned his name from - one of the largest spiders in Europe. It's one of the family of Araneae, also known as the 'real spider family'. It's hard to miss it due to the striking colors. Ans found one in the vegie garden and showed it to me. I remember that I had seen one a few years back in our 'jungle' (the wild uncultivated part of the estate). Although the size is large in comparison to other spiders, a bite is not dangerous for humans, but it does paralyze it's pray with venom so I guess you would feel something.

It's an interesting spider....

* Males are about half the size of the females
* Males have two sort of penises and he leaves it inside the body of the female after mating - which is called 'plugging' on Wikipedia - in order to prevent other males from mating with the same female.
* After mating the female normally shrink wraps her lover and sucks out his juices, what a honorable gift of the male.
* If he mates with her just after she has changed her skin, he is able to escape and mate one more time with his spare penis.
* They are very selective with their pray and they avoid eating a certain beetle, the Brachinus Crepitans. The Dutch name of this beetle is much more telling about this beetle: bombardeerkever (beetle = kever in Dutch). I don't understand why the English name is not similar so Bobardeer Beetle. The funny thing about this beetle is that it can fire off an aimed bomb which explodes at a temperature of 100 degrees Celsius in the face of the spider.