Jon in Pasadena

Are you a Sumo fan? I think it's pretty cool, myself.

[ quote=Alaska Darin,Sep 6 2004, 07:31 PM] That's a very nice story - in a pretty twisted kind of way. 20281[/snapback] Yeah, strangely enough that seems to be an accurate description of most of my stories....

When I was in college I almost stepped (barefoot) on a good-sized Widow. I ran and got a jar and captured her easily enough. I named her "George Carcass" after a friend of mine who hates all creepy-crawlies, and over the next few weeks I fed her a steady diet of bugs, mostly moths since they were always fluttering around my dorm room and annoying me. Watching her stalk and kill the moths was really cool. A true assassin. The moths never knew what hit them. One day I noticed a huge egg sac had appeared overnight. Apparently female Widows, like many spiders, can store previously obtained sperm for months at a time, and they fertilize their eggs when they get a good food supply. Eventually hundred of cute littly baby Widows emerged and ate everything they could find including each other. I gave the survivors to a researcher on campus who works with a company that milks the venom to make antivenin. Pretty cool. Sadly George passed away one day after eating what I suspect was a tainted bug. But I'll always have the memories.

Dunno, but they're probably made by the Tyrell Corporation....