too many words by laura lemay

tarantulas redux

So I was looking at the tarantula photo I posted yesterday when something very problematic suddenly occurred to me: that’s not a spider. Its only got six legs.

So I googled “california tarantula” and found pictures of the common tarantulas that I was supposed to be watching out for on my hike — and they are more like the tarantulas you see in movies. Distinct body and head. Very hairy. And eight legs.

So OK. I have a photograph of some big spider-like thing on the hiking path, and its also definitely the thing that has been running in front of my bicycle for the last few weeks. What kind of big scary bug is this? Is there an entomologist in the house??