Wil: Spider I.D.

I saw one of those on television the other night; an M&M commercial.

Man and woman sittin on couch. Woman spots spider, shrieks, clutches at her boyfriend. He laughs, gets up, walks to the spider and sticks his finger down on top of the spider to show her how harmless it is. The next thing you see is the guy being thrown all over the room with his finger still grasped by the spider. By then I was laughing so hard I missed the (unneeded) punch line; maybe something about eating the green M&M's.

I see you've discovered our cherished madre de alacrán.

Please do not kill them. They are considered good luck to have in your home (especially your closet) because they eat alacranes. Respect their space and they'll respect yours and, as a bonus, they'll keep you a little bit safer.

Hola Jeff!

That is a beautiful harmless "Amblypygi"

Amblypygi is an order of invertebrate animals belonging to the class Arachnida, in the subphylum Chelicerata of the phylum Arthropoda. They form a separate order of arachnids alongside the spiders, scorpions and others.

Amblypygids are also known as whip spiders and tailless whip scorpions (not to be confused with whip scorpions that belong to the Arachnid order Thelyphonida). The name "amblypygid" means "blunt rump", a reference to a lack of the telson ("tail") carried by related species. They are totally harmless to humans.

As of 2003[update], 5 families, 17 genera and around 155 species have been discovered.[1] They are found in tropical and subtropical regions worldwide. Some species are subterranean; many are nocturnal. During the day, they may hide under logs, bark, stones, or leaves. They prefer a humid environment.

Amblypygids have no silk glands or venomous fangs.

There used to be one like that who lived in the storage room at the Bamboo House, up the hill at the end of la Ropa. She was called Carlotta and all the guests wrote about her in the house journal. Quite beautiful, really. Where I come from all spiders are considered grandmothers and (should be) respected as such.