I decided to get out of the house and take a walk. Everything is still dead and brown and frigid outdoors, but I had a cunning plan: I’d visit the university greenhouse! I was disappointed.
Oh, sure, there were colorful flowers.
But I was looking for spiders. The only arthropods I could find were some tiny ants scurrying all over twigs and leaves. You can’t escape ants.
There were some tantalizing dense cobwebs in a couple of close spaces, but the inhabitants weren’t hanging out. Probably lurking. I’ll have to come back and check again.
Flowers? What are those?
Maybe they are using pesticides that kill spiders?
Also, some insects’ seasonal activity periods are based on photo-period and some others on degree-days (but degree-days probably irrelevant because of it being a greenhouse). I don’t know if spiders respond similarly, but I would be surprised if some didn’t.
Kiruna (far north in Sweden) has 325 cm (11 ft) of snow, and is getting more.
BTW Jasper Fforde’s latest novel is set in a world where humans hibernate and the winter is full of stuff that is scary even for a technological civilisation. Nice!
Cobwebs are spider lingerie. PZ is posting enticements for his more explicit spider content elsewhere.
@2 Yes, I’d guess insect control strict in a glasshouse, so not much spider food. But I am always puzzled as to where the young spiders go in the winter.
Dictynidaeworld.
@6 The judges give you a prize!
That picture reminded me of Barbados. They grow all over the place . Along with crotons, Ixora, plumeria , and of course mangoes and bananas
Oh those are bougainvillea flowers