Where'd It GO?!?

AARGH!!!

I just had a white-tail spider crawling on my arm!!!

...It's gone now, I flicked it off my arm and it crawled under my CD rack, obviously not game to try and take me on. Sorry, if I'd been quicker I would have taken a Dinkycam at it, but it wasn't very big anyway.
I don't think it had time to bite me, but if it did, I'm not worried - their bites aren't really as dangerous as people believe. Yes, I know, I've heard all that stuff about "white tail spider bites making your skin rot away"... but guess what? All that hysteria originally came from a doctor making a guess about possible causes of bite-like symptoms... it was either the White tail or the Wolf Spider.
If you're not an Australian resident, you probably don't know what a "White Tail" is. They're a common species of ground-dwelling spider in the southern parts of Australia. They grow up to about 1 inch long (legspan), they like to live in leaf litter and tanbark (and also piles of clothing!), and they are more ugly than they are dangerous. Really.

I mean, a lot of people don't like spiders in general, for sure, but the prejudice folks have against these critters is really quite extraordinary. People have made the claim that they're so toxic based on nothing more than hearsay and speculation, mostly because they've gone to a doctor with a running sore, to be told, "Oh, it's probably just a white-tail spider bite". (Well, it's easier than just saying, "Um, I have no idea what that is... er, would you like a jellybean?")

Click here to view the Wikipedia article about the White Tail Spider, as well as look at an icky picture of one. Don't panic, they're nowhere near as bad as those horrible gigantic man-eating spiders in Iraq you've probably heard a LOT about... (oh, and by the way, folks...)