One day old. This was a tough photo to take — the little spiderlings respond to any touch with frantic escape behavior and end up running all over the place, and they refuse to pose nicely for a picture.
I note that even shortly after emergence they have the banded legs and scattering of dark abdominal pigment.
Human kids do the same thing.
Only vaguely related, Most people avoid ugly animals. I’m obsessed with them: “Growing up in rural Australia, I found joy in the weird creatures around me – and finding out why they had evolved that way. Now I’ve illustrated a whole children’s book about them”. Author Sami Bayly’s book The Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Ugly Animals has apparently just been published. Judging by the illustrations in the linked-to article, and the author’s comments in the article, it could be well worth investigating. No mention of spiders, however…
[OT]
Arachnophilia aside for one second, did you see the recent story about the dreaming octopus? Sounds sus to me.
Even less related, Ozland continues to ensure that the only non-deadly flora and fauna are, perhaps, a few of the sheep, Deadly fungi native to Japan and Korea discovered in Australian rainforest: “Poison Fire Coral, the only known fungi whose toxins are absorbed through the skin, found on the outskirts of Cairns”.