@tenderheliotrope submitted: A jumping spider who was nice enough to look directly at my camera :)
I am going to SHRIEK and WEEP this spider is too ding dang cute for me to handle emotionally. LOOK at those beautiful chelicerae!!!
I couldn’t help myself…the call of the Spooder was too strong… lol by Free-2B-Me
Female yellow-kneed skeleton tarantulas with spiderlings, Ephebopus murinus, Aviculariinae
Found in South America
Photos 1-2 by birdernaturalist and 3 by markuslilje,
ghost-blight asked:
What’s the most fucked up spider?
bunjywunjy answered:
science is discovering new and increasingly fucked-up spiders every day, but the net-casting spiders in general are pretty janked.
look at these things. instead of building a web and sitting in it, they build a web and use it like a fucking butterfly net!
are you a busy bug? no time, no problem! this spider will bring the web right to YOU!
I think there needs to be more admiration for sea spiders. Here are their charm points:
- Little goofy eyes
- Funny noses containing their fluid sucking proboscis
- Prey on slow or immobile squishy things like sea cucumbers and sponges
- So little “body” that their internal organs go into their legs. Asymmetrically.
- Larvae are just heads that swim and then grow the rest.
- Males carry the babies, in a pair of egg sacs on their legs.
- Not spiders, actually like the sibling group to all arthropods
- LIVING CAMBRIAN ARTHROPODS. Like for real these were around back then with barely any differences. Even velvet worms changed more than that. These are a glimpse into a completely alien world that we all came from.
This is what the babies look like:
This is a dad with two egg bundles:
I also forgot to mention their gonads are in their toes!
Anonymous asked:
What happens if tarantula no longger need the frog?
bunjywunjy answered:
great news! that just straight-up doesn’t happen.
tarantulas can live for well over a decade, and female tarantulas can expect to breed multiple times before they finally kick it! and since there’s always the expectation of there going to be a new clutch of eggs in the nest every year, there’s no benefit in getting rid of the frogs that will keep those eggs safe.
a female columbian lesserblack tarantula will treasure and protect her frogs until the day she dies, and then those frogs will go into the care of whichever of her daughters inherits her burrow! it’s an eternal cycle. a cycle of frog.
the scorpion came upon the frog on the riverbank.
"friend frog," said the scorpion, waving its little pincer things in an emotive fashion, "would you carry me across? the river is wide, and I cannot swim."
the frog was a kindly fellow, and hesitated, thinking it over.
now, this story could have progressed as it normally does, into a very sad and rather ham-fisted metaphor for the nature of the human experience, but luckily for both the frog and the reader (though not for the scorpion), our story is interrupted rather abruptly here by the sudden appearance of a ginormous fucking spider popping out of the bushes and making short work of the scorpion.
"Ribbort," said the giant fuckoff tarantula, delicately wiping some scorpion off her huge terrifying spider fangs, "there you are! I was worried. you know better than to wander off into an allegory like this. come home, the children miss you."
the frog, whose name was Ribbort, shrugged his damp little shoulders. indeed, some metaphors just can't be accurately applied to the natural world, due to the enormously complex and often unexpected web of relationships between living creatures in any given ecosystem, and that is the way of things.
and then they went home together, hand in hand.
IMPORTANT DISCOVERY
Jumping spider using an acorn cap as a boat in the hot tub.
(It was safely removed after I took a few pics and this video. Our pool stuff is saltwater instead of chlorine, so it didn’t seem to be in immediate danger while floating in its little boat. Not sure if it fell in with the cap or happened to fall in and swim/crawl(via surface tension) to it, but either way this concept belongs in every fantasy thing ever.)
I swear jumping spiders are just the most effortlessly charming little animals; this is like something out of a children’s book illustration. So glad this charming arachnid made it to safety!
I have one I named Samantha that lives on top of my shrimp tank! She eats fruit flies and I’ve seen her fishing for seed shrimp - I wouldn’t have believed if I didn’t see her reach in and grab one!
Not to be dramatic but I would die for Samantha may she be fat and happy on fruit flies and seed shrimp forever
Jürgen Otto can’t stop discovering new spider species. In 2005, the mite expert stumbled upon the stunning Maratus volans - a brightly colored “peacock spider” – near Sydney, Australia. It danced and postured, waving its tiny legs and unfurling a beautiful flap from its back.
Then came other peacock spiders, including species known as Sparklemuffin, Skeletorus, and Elephans. Now Otto has described a new species - the peekaboo spider, Jortus remus. The remus part of its scientific name means “oar” - a nod to the odd fan shaped structures at the end of two of the males’ legs. When males wave these appendages, females stop and take notice … and then it’s mating time.
You can watch the full videos of these beautiful species here and here.
And read more about them at National Geographic.
Bless its little heart <3
some-zer0