I decided to create this gallery as a seperate entity after I realised how many of my friends were arachnophobic (even more than me) and weren't looking at any of my invertebrate pictures because they didn't want to see spiders. It is a pity as spiders are very interesting animals.

According to Greek mythology spiders were created by the goddess Palace Athene who became a bit miffed when she was beaten by a mortal, Arachne, in a weaving competition, and turned Arachne into the original spider, cursed to weave forever more. That is why spiders are called Arachnids.