Elizabeth BoatmanI recently made a trip to Los Angeles to check out something most people wouldn’t walk across the street to see. In fact, they possibly would head as fast as possible in the opposite direction. I went to the Natural History Museum to see the Spider Pavilion. This special exhibit is on display through December 11, 2016.
Okay, I’m not overly bothered my spiders. I certainly am not someone who has to stomp on one as soon as I see it. I figure if the black widow is happy living in the wall at the bottom of the garden, so be it. I’m happy up here in the house. We can live separate lives. Let’s just keep it that way. So I approached this expedition with a good amount of curiosity. I wasn’t disappointed.
The first thing I noticed is that spiders are a lot smaller than butterflies! I had to look carefully to spot them. Sometimes they were above me.
This one looks huge but it really wasn’t. I worked hard to crop these images so that you could see the spider! It was easy to spot this one because of the bright background behind it. And he posed so well too. Actually, I don’t know if it’s a “he.” I know next to nothing about spiders. Nonetheless it’s pretty and colorful.
Most of the spiders in the pavilion were orb weavers, which means they make those fantastic circular webs. Well, they’re iconic spider symbols, aren’t they? I loved looking for the webs. Here’s another example.
No snickering now, I’ll know if you do. I’m going to guess that the one above is a different spider species, or whatever the term is. It looks different from the previous spider. It also reminds me of a pin I had as a child. I really like the orange body. These little creatures are so lovely. Okay, and at times they’re kind of creepy. But mostly pretty.
I don’t know is this is an orb weaver. My ability to classify spiders is quite limited. It was up on a big umbrella as if he were posing. I really appreciated that since I therefore didn’t have to crawl around in the bushes to find him…or her.
I hope I’ve piqued your interest. If so, here’s a few tips. The Spider Pavilion is a special feature at the museum. The tickets are timed and one is allowed 30 minutes in the pavilion. After the allotted time, visitors are asked to leave. There are double doors and one does a little circular dance while being inspected to make certain no spider passengers have hitched a ride to freedom on one’s clothing. Those 30 minutes go by quickly!
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