Meet Sammi.
Sammi is a Huntsman Spider, a Giant Grey to be precise.

Sammi isn’t so Giant yet. She’s about four inches from left leg to right leg.
This isn’t an actual picture of Sammi, but just one of her relatives and I won’t say they all look alike because she may take offense.

Sammi came to live on my bike around two weeks ago. I know this because she’s leaving her silk webs all over it. A daily wipe down in the morning cleans them up.

I have only seem Sammi twice, once about a week ago as I was tinkering in the shed. I saw her duck for cover as I walked in, skittering down under the faring. The second time was yesterday afternoon as I was riding home. She had, unfortunately, been caught napping and ended up becoming marooned on the handlebars of the bike in the less windiest spot.

How long she had been there I don’t know, probably when I started the bike to come home she had poked her head out to see what all the fuss was about.
When I finally noticed her, she had tears of fear in all eight eyes as she huddled next to the ignition keys, clinging on for dear life. Every now and then she’d try to find a more secure hiding place but because of the wind roaring up through the faring, couldn’t move beyond the steering column.

Sammi managed to hang on until I got home, where shaken, she finally managed to find some respite from the wind.

Sammi is still on the bike somewhere, I saw her webs again this morning. How long she’ll make my bike her home I’m not sure. I can’t imagine there being much to eat on a Suzuki DL650. But until she moves on... happy hunting Sammi.


Image borrowed from brisbaneinsects.com.

Tags: spiders