Quick update: here’s a shiny new Parasteatoda postembryo. Nothing exciting happens in this video — it’s nothing but 3 minutes staring into the eyes of a baby spider. It twitches a bit. It waves a leg around, floppily. But so much is happening in its nervous system!
This is one member of the new clutch of Gwyneth’s grandchildren. I’ll be sorting them out this weekend and putting them in individual vials, and maybe by early March they’ll be making Gwyneth’s great-grandchildren.
This is delightful. I can hear such wonder in your voice, as you’re describing the little nerve connections that are forming.
Thank you, so much, for sharing this with us.
One of life’s greater delights is witnessing new life coming into being.
It is a profound connection between us humans and all the other
critters and the green things.
I watched a very small (quarter inch long) spider on the leaf of a soybean
plant tenaciously guard her eggs over the course of a week or so.
Then came the day I went to look and she, and her eggs, were gone.
At first I feared the worst; then I realized that most likely the best had happened.
Life’s like that, innit?
I know those are eyes, but it looks like a cute smile on this embryo – he’s so happy to be developing!