Mary’s Monday Metazoan: In with the new!

15 comments

Skip to comment form ↓

1. 1
   

   Glen Davidson

   31 December 2012 at 7:53 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

   Have a creepy new year!

   Glen Davidson

2. 2
   

   Ogvorbis: useless

   31 December 2012 at 7:57 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

   Wife and I feel for the spider. Boy is 22, an assistant manager at a quickie mart, two semesters from graduation, and is still on our backs.

3. 3
   

   ChasCPeterson

   31 December 2012 at 7:57 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

   ah, the heartwarming tableau of parental care behavior.
   They say it’s only the female arachnids that…oops, I’m sorry, we don’t discuss that stuff here.

4. 4
   

   Tethys

   31 December 2012 at 8:06 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

   They say it’s only the female arachnids that…..

   Eat their mates, resulting in healthier offspring?

5. 5
   

   Ing:Intellectual Terrorist "Starting Tonight, People will Whine"

   31 December 2012 at 8:38 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

   Hell Freddy? Yes sorry I can’t fit you in any time this year, all my night terrors have all ready been booked

6. 6
   

   spamamander, internet amphibian

   31 December 2012 at 8:52 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

   Trigger warning! Trigger warning!!!

7. 7
   

   mildlymagnificent

   31 December 2012 at 9:20 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

   Lawks!

   It’s like that itchy feeling you get when reading those ominous missives from the primary school about an outbreak of headlice. You haven’t even put down the letter and started to check your own sprogling’s hair – but the creepy, crawly sensation gets you anyway.

   Just looking at that critter. Eeuuurgh.

8. 8
   

   Dick the Damned

   31 December 2012 at 9:42 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

   Of course, it’s Australian, eh. But it ain’t as dangerous as our polar bears. And what the heck, we’ve got wolf spiders, too

9. 9
   

   Josh, Exasperated SpokesGay

   31 December 2012 at 10:24 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

   “Craws, daddy.”

   So nice. So nice.

10. 10
    

    DLC

    31 December 2012 at 10:31 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

    I don’t know if this story has the legs to go into 2013.

11. 11
    

    WMDKitty (Always growing and learning)

    31 December 2012 at 11:53 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

    Oh. My. Ceiling Cat.

    DO NOT WANT!!!!

12. 12
    

    RobertL

    1 January 2013 at 12:19 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

    Good grief! Reading things like Tethys’ link always freaks me out about the weird results of evolution and the things that living things do to pass on genes.

13. 13
    

    blogofmyself, writer of papers

    1 January 2013 at 12:45 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

    Aww, look at all the little spiderlings! Though I think jumping spiders are my favorite, I really love wolf spiders. I once caught one and kept her as a pet so I could watch her eat small grasshoppers. It was totally awesome. I ended up letting her go after a few weeks because I felt bad for keeping her locked up in my terrarium.

14. 14
    

    brianpansky

    1 January 2013 at 1:50 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

    This reminds me, I recently re-discovered “Charlotte’s’ Web”, which is a story that seems atheist friendly. [spoilers ahead]

    charlotte’s plan is based on humans being “gullible” and what do you know, the human’s first reaction to her web is that it is a miracle! a priest is briefly mentioned to have given a sermon about the meaning of the ‘Sign’, and in his sermon his message is ‘this sign means that we should always be watchful for signs’ [obviously vacuous, much?]. Then, near the end of the book, Charlotte is dying and I think the audience is meant to perceive injustice when her work is firmly attributed to the ‘supernatural’.

15. 15
    

    Nick Gotts (formerly KG)

    1 January 2013 at 8:29 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

    They say it’s only the female arachnids that…oops, I’m sorry, we don’t discuss that stuff here. – Mr. Peterson

    Quite. I mean, spiders have extensive cultural traditions, including sophisticated language and technology which make it fiendishly difficult to even make sense of the idea of innate psychological differences between the sexes, let alone identify them with reasonable confidence, don’t they?