Isn’t technology wonderful?
Here it is, the aforementioned CT scan of a living spider egg sac (probably a theridiid of some kind)! 18 second scan taken at @BeckmanInst. I'll keep the sac to see if the babies hatch okay after x-ray exposure before releasing them back into the wild. https://t.co/uebbeD0lCC pic.twitter.com/9fnJdbtQ6l
— Josh Gibson, Ph.D. (@DrStrangeAnt) May 11, 2023
That reminds me, I have many balls of spiders to tend to this morning.
Much better spiderballs than mothballs!
Is there a collective noun for these? A sphere of spiderballs maybe? Or coballs after cobwebs with ‘cob’ being ye olde word for spider so I gather?
Much better spiderballs than mothballs!
Is there a collective noun for these? A sphere of spiderballs maybe? Or coballs after cobwebs with ‘cob’ being ye olde word for spider so I gather?
Yum.
And so began the adventures of Peter Parker…
Pity the contents of the eggs couldn’t be resolved. Pesky laws of physics!
@3. birgerjohansson : Yum? Not sure if spiderballs or arachnid egg sacs are edible & rather suspect that they would stick in one’s throat..
Source of protein possibly, source of sticky spider silk surely?
PS. Apologies for my accidental double post here. Mea culpa.
I wondered if you’d seen that; thought you’d like it.
@4 wzrd1 Well I’m seeing some legs even if you aren’t.
Is this the start of some 1950s sci-fi horror film?
No, that’s the start of a utopian feel-good fantasy. Or a rom-com.
A sci-fi horror film could begin either of those two ways; and many do.
BTW, PZ, I read a little anecdote about tarantulas keeping a certain species of very tiny frog (as in, much smaller than tarantulas) as nest-pets: The tarantula lays eggs in her nest, and the tiny frog would hang around the eggs and eat all the insects that come to eat the eggs. Eggs get protected, frog gets food. Is any of this true? Do you know anything about this?
Sure. lots of stories online about it.
Ariaflame, BSc, BF, PhD @ 7, maybe it’s a loss of visual resolution from my age and lattice degeneration. :/
I’ll have to get that checked out.
Raging Bee @ 10, sounds like something someone should research and copiously document. I’d consider it, but Pennsylvania doesn’t have may tarantulas or whatever frog that is.
WHAT?!
Irradiate a spider EGG-SAC, hatch in a LABORATORY,
and RELEASE them into the WILD?
Do you want a Kumonga? Because this is how you get a Kumonga…
@ ^ yaque : Kumonga? Ah : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kumonga
@10. Raging Bee : See :
https://nerdist.com/article/animal-friendships-tarantulas-spiders-have-pet-frogs/
+
https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/tetrapod-zoology/tiny-frogs-and-giant-spiders-best-of-friends/
So, yes.