Spiders make art

My black widows were relocated to new empty cages, and overnight they filled them with beautiful, intricate cobwebs, like this one.

It looks chaotic, but I can trace a couple of gumfoot lines in there that have bracing to allow them to hoist up any prey that stumbles into them.

Blue has molted!

Today I’m catching up with lab work, and the first thing I spotted after coming through the door was that our tarantula, Blue, had molted overnight. I’ve been keeping their molts as a record of their growth.

Top left is the molt from this past summer; top right is the latest, looking a bit crumpled. Human skull in the frame as a size reference.

Blue is in the background. They look smaller because they’re farther away, but trust me, Blue has grown! Also, they’re a bit cranky because I don’t think their cuticle is fully hardened yet.

That’s how you get spiders, you know

I was feeding the black widows in my lab (all neatly caged, of course) when I saw this little guy hanging out just above the benchtop. Pholcus phalangioides, obviously.

I imagine most people have a little internal debate — do I squish him, or do I gently scoot him out the door? I always take the third option. I had just come from the genetics lab, with a bottle full of redundant Drosophila, and I shook a bunch out over her web. She was showered with flies! She was so excited, scurrying about to wrap them all up.

This is how I generally treat these random spiders in the lab (I call them the Ferals, and I’ve got Ferals all over the place.) I guess I shouldn’t wonder how she got here.

A spider with two hoo-has

Nice.

Almafuerte peripampasica, female. A, prosoma and opisthosoma (dorsal view). B, opisthosoma (ventral view, arrow pointing to the duplicated epigyne). Note the difference in size and the slightly asymmetry. C, normal epigyne (arrow pointing to larva). D, duplicated epigyne. Specimen locality: Argentina: Córdoba: Parque Nacional Quebrada del Condorito, “sitio 2”, -31.63481, -64.71087, alt. 1846m, M. Izquierdo, D. Abregú, C. Mattoni, col. Sep. 16, 2019, under stones. LABRE-Ar 498, voucher MAI-4754.

Developmental variations always catch my eye, and this one is interesting from the standpoint of looking for spatial specifications. The normal blueprint for the spider body plan puts the epigyne at the anterior end of the abdomen, but here’s one way back near the spinnerets. What triggered formation at that position? It’s also non-functional, they think — I’d want to know more about the internal organs, what’s connected to what.

In general, malformations in spiders involve chelicerae, pedipalps, walking legs, and eyes, but those affecting female reproductive structures are not so frequent. A teratological case of a spider with a duplicated reproductive structure is described. The female specimen has the typical epigyne and a second one near the spinnerets. The second epigyne is less developed and seems to be non-functional. Similar malformations have been reported for Amaurobiidae and Salticidae, and here is presented for Gnaphosidae. Although it is widely known that temperature and humidity may induce abnormalities under experimental conditions, the causes behind teratological genitalia in wild females are unknown. This case opens the question of the origin of such a malformation and the ontogeny of female reproductive organs in spiders.

Also, that’s an adult of respectable size, so the ectopic organ doesn’t seem to have affected its viability. I’m going to have to spend some time looking up spiders’ skirts this summer.

The Harvest

When I want to hide from the news, I’ve always got bugs to tend. I’ve been neglecting my mealworm colony, so this morning I cleaned it out — it was mostly full of frass, which explains why my harvest was a bit low. Here’s today’s collection.

The frass is in the compost, I scooped up a handful of the larvae to feed the spiders today, and the rest got dumped into a couple pounds of fresh cornmeal with an overripe banana as a treat.

I’ve got to expand this colony, just in case the situation in America becomes even more dire, and I need a source of healthy protein for myself, not just the spiders.

You can’t blame the spider!

Well, this is a fascinating example of spider toxicity. A heroin addict, looking for a cheap high or a weird story to tell her friends, ground up a black widow spider in a little water and…injected it intravenuously. I’ve heard of people eating strange dangerous things on a dare, but mainlining it takes it to a whole new level. Don’t do that!

The consequences were unpleasant but fortunately not lethal.

Several hours after arriving at the hospital, the woman began to have trouble breathing. Her wheezing became so severe that she was moved to the intensive care unit (ICU).

The diagnosis: Doctors determined that the patient’s symptoms were triggered by the black widow’s toxic venom, they wrote in a report. Black widow venom is known to disrupt signals in the nervous system, thus causing muscle pain and spasms, rapid heartbeat and high blood pressure. In some cases, it leads to inflammation that can ultimately restrict breathing, according to Harvard Medical School. The patient had asthma, and the physicians suspected that her breathing difficulties may have been worsened by an allergic reaction to a protein found in the venom.

Notably, when a black widow bites, it injects a very low volume of venom. Because the woman ground up the whole spider, she may have exposed herself to a dose orders of magnitude higher than is typical. A black widow’s venom glands hold about 0.2 milligrams of venom, on average.

The treatment: Doctors gave the woman an IV solution of calcium gluconate, a medication that can help relieve muscle cramps, but her symptoms did not improve significantly. Next, she received morphine for pain relief. The ICU doctors attempted to reduce her wheezing with three treatments of albuterol, a drug that relaxes airway muscles and is a common remedy for asthma. When those treatments were ineffective, they switched to methylprednisolone, a steroid medication. But her labored breathing continued, and the next day, she required a nebulizer. Doctors then gave her morphine and lorazepam — a type of depressant — to ease her muscle spasms and cramping.

Antivenin, or antivenom, for black widow bites carries a risk of anaphylaxis, a severe and immediate allergic reaction. Since the patient was already having trouble breathing, and the doctors suspected that antivenin would worsen her respiratory distress, they did not include it in her treatment.

By the second day of treatment, the patient’s breathing had returned to normal, her lungs were unobstructed and her muscle pain was gone. The doctors transferred her to a general ward and discharged her a day later. They instructed her to follow her standard regimen for controlling her asthma and suggested that she take oral steroids to control any lingering inflammation.

Did they also suggest that she not shoot up any more spiders?

For some reason, a lot of people have been sending me this story. Do I look like the kind of person who would inject themselves with spider venom? Are they warning me not to do this? I assure you all, I like spiders too much to want to grind one up.

Although…I do have several spiders of various species that died of natural causes, and are now floating in vials of 95% alcohol. They could be an interesting addition to a cocktail of some sort, don’t you think?

Not how it actually works

I can’t relate to this cartoon — it’s too impractical.

We do not have a food delivery service in Morris.

I do not buy bugs in a store. Well, I will occasionally buy a few crickets from the pet store in town or waxworms from a bait shop, but those are just special treats.

I have a big tank in the basement where I raise swarms of mealworms (they’re easy!) and an incubator at my lab where I’ve got tens of thousands of fruit flies.

I am beginning to suspect that the cartoonist doesn’t actually have much experience with raising a house full of invertebrates.