When Wendy Gardiner stepped outside her home in Queensland, Australia, she was simply planning to check on her native beehive. But the day took an unexpected turn — starting with a soft thud on her head.
“At first, I thought it was just a leaf,” Gardiner told The Dodo. But when the object tumbled off her head and landed in a nearby potted plant, she glanced down — and froze.
There, nestled among the leaves, was something alive. Orange, round, and absolutely strange.
“I saw it had eight legs,” Gardiner said. “So I knew it was a spider — but I’d never seen anything like it before.”
Gardiner, a longtime nature lover originally from England, stared in awe at the unusual little creature. With its rounded body and spiny edges, the spider reminded her of a Cornish pasty — a traditional meat-filled pastry from home.
“And it even had this crown-like pattern on its back,” she said, laughing. “It looked like a pastry fit for a king!”
Intrigued, Gardiner snapped a few pictures and posted them in a spider identification group online. She didn’t have to wait long for an answer.
It turned out her mysterious visitor was a four-spined jewel spider — a brilliantly colored arachnid found only in Queensland and New Guinea. With their bright orange bodies and spiky silhouettes, they look more like tiny works of art than something you’d find in your garden.
“People were fascinated,” Gardiner said. “The markings on its back were just incredible.”
She stayed outside watching as the tiny spider, undisturbed by its brief adventure atop her head, began spinning a new web — carefully rebuilding what must have been destroyed during its surprise drop-in.
“I must have accidentally walked through the original web,” she said.
By the time she came back outside again later, the spider had vanished — likely off to continue spinning its dazzling designs elsewhere.
Though she hasn’t seen another jewel spider since, Gardiner always keeps an eye out whenever she’s in the garden.
“I really hope I spot more,” she said. “That little guy was just magical.”
