Unusual sight on hiking trail
by Rob Gibson
UPDATE 12:14 p.m.
The man who spotted the folding door spider on the Paul's Tomb Hiking trail tells Castanet he just moved to Kelowna from Langley B.C.
Darren Smith says he spotted the large spider on May 20, " it was just past the outhouse on the trail and it was about two inches long." Smith says the same day he also saw a snake at the trailhead that he almost stepped on and then a few minutes later there was the spider walking across the path.
"It was pretty slow and it didn't react when I came across it. Just kept walking across the path, it seemed kind of lethargic looking."
ORIGINAL 4:00 a.m.
A Kelowna man came across an unusual sight while hiking Paul's Tomb trail along Okanagan Lake last week.
Darren, an avid Castanet reader, snapped this photo of a large spider amongst the rocks on the way to Paul's Tomb and was curious to find out exactly what it is.
While it's not a tarantula, it does come from the same family. Karlee Friesen with the Victoria Bug Zoo tells Castanet it's a folding door spider — or Antrodiaetus hageni from the Antrodiaetidae family — and a relative of the tarantula.
"We have four species of folding door spiders in B.C. and the Okanagan one is Antrodiaetus hageni," says Claudia Copley, researcher in the entomology department at the Royal BC Museum in Victoria.
These spiders can live for up to 20-years and play an important role in B.C.'s ecology, acting as natural insect control.
The folding door spider builds deep, silk-lined burrows.
Friesen says they are fairly common and have been spotted more often by hikers recently.
"These spiders also typically burrow underground but with less foot traffic on trails, they are just checking out their surroundings a bit."
"Like all spiders she has mild venom but if you don’t bug her, she won’t bug you!" Friesen added.
Females don't typically leave their nests so are not observed very often. Males typically go in search of a mate in the fall, so spotting one in the spring is somewhat unusual.