#SpiderSunday: Pinin’ for Texas


I got these new spiders from Texas last week, and they aren’t adjusting very well. Usually what the new gals do when I put them in a nice big roomy empty cage is that they start filling the space with webbing, pick a nice spot somewhere in the middle, and hang upside down, waiting for it to start raining flies. Not these spiders. There a few short patches of cobweb here and there, but mainly they sit huddled in a corner and don’t bother coming out. Compare Lantana today with Lantana last week — she seems to have scarcely moved.


I guess I can’t blame her. How would you feel if I picked you up in Texas and hauled you all the way up to Minnesota in November? It sounds cruel, even to me, and I prefer my northern state.

Yes, it’s snowing right now. But that’s outside! These spiders are all in a nice warm lab with a 14/10 light dark cycle!

Comments

  1. kestrel says

    Is it possible they can sense the magnetic field of the earth, or whatever, and “know” they are somewhere different? I think birds can. In fact despite several hundred years of domestication canaries still breed when it’s the right time in the Canary Islands, not wherever they happen to be, despite light levels etc. That would be super interesting to find out. It does not seem like a change from TX to MN would make a difference to them but maybe it would.

  2. unclefrogy says

    great picture lots of good detail. they truly are beautiful remarkable creatures.
    nice about the light levels I did not think of that
    maybe it is a reaction to their whole experience of being captured and held in their vials for an extended time and transported and they kind of shut down waiting for things to return to normal?
    uncle frogy

  3. asclepias says

    Is that white circle on her abdomen supposed to be there, or is it an artifact of the light?

  4. says

    Is that white circle on her abdomen supposed to be there, or is it an artifact of the light?

    Looks like PZ may have invested in a ring flash, or is using one of those articulated magnifying lamps with a circular bulb as the light source.