Spider

My brother sent me a newspaper in which his three-year-old, my nephew, appeared on the front cover. Granted it was only a freebie local newspaper, but still. He's FAMOUS!

In the photo my nephew is blurred, but the real reason for the photo is in sharp focus. It is a large Golden Orb spider, which apparently parachuted from Australia to New Zealand when it was a spiderling and landed in my brother's garden, where it grew and grew and grew and now has an 11 cm leg span. They can grow to 24 cm, but when they turn up in NZ they generally die when winter comes along. Also, the only ones to survive the flight seem to be female, so they do not establish breeding populations.

The web of the spider in my brother's garden is two meters across, and is golden in sunlight.

My brother and nephew are now feeding bugs to the spider (although my nephew's first reaction was, "Let's spray it, Daddy!"), and my brother told me that he intends to try to keep the spider alive over the winter. He will provide it with heated accommodation.

How long do spiders live? In a few years, is my nephew going to be famous at school as the kid with the giant pet spider? Will he be able to ward off bullies by siccing his spider on them?

Also, did you know that baby spiders are called spiderlings? I didn't. My spell checker didn't, either, but I looked it up, and it's true.