It’s really just an excuse to talk about spiders for an hour.
Pharyngula
Evolution, development, and random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal
It’s really just an excuse to talk about spiders for an hour.
Today was spider feeding day, and it’s usually a bit of a chore just because I have so many spiderlings right now. Mary came along to help this time, though, and it was amazing how easy it was: I’d zip along all the vials with spiders, flicking sacrificial flies to their waiting doom, and she’d follow along behind, capping each vial as I went. Zoom, it was done.
Now my dilemma: do I keep my wife, dragging her in to assist every feeding session, or do I grow an extra pair of hands? The latter does have some attractive aspects, you know.
But it’s almost Hallowe’en, so I get to revel in spiders for a while.
Below the fold is a photo of what looks like a gigantic spider filling a room, surrounded by a swarm of its babies.
The good news for you arachnophobes is that it’s a trick of perspective — it’s actually photographed in a smaller enclosed space.
The bad news is that the space was under the photographer’s bed.
The badder news is that it is a Brazilian wandering spider, one of the most venomous spiders known.
Also, the photo was posted on The Weather Channel’s page. You never know what you might see when you go to check the weather for a picnic.
Sweet dreams!
This is one of those case-dependent scenarios, I think.
Also, if I tried it as a gambit and it did work, I’d probably disappoint myself that there was no spider.
It needs a soundtrack, though.
No, no, no, this cartoon is wildly inappropriate, unless tomorrow’s follow-up is a bloody scene of vengeance as Lio turns his giant spider (with three body segments? Come on, Mr Tatulli) loose upon the exterminators.
It’s something of a peeve of mine when exterminators try to advertise in something like #spidertwitter, for instance, especially when they frequently categorize spiders as pests. I don’t even like to see insecticides sprayed on other arthropod targets — leave the bugs alone, they have a right to live, too.
At 9pm Central on Saturday, 30 October, I’m going to start up a livestream on YouTube to just talk about spiders, and spider movies, and whatever scary things I can think of about spiders. It’s Hallowe’en! I get to indulge.
If anyone else wants to jump in the stream, just send me a note and maybe I’ll let you on. Or even commenters on that evening — if I trust you to tell us all cool creepy stuff, I’ll send you a link then.
Maybe I’ll try to convince Mrs Spiders to make a brief appearance, since she has to live with the abominable Dr Spiders and probably has the scariest stories of them all.
My wife was just sitting there, quietly reading, when she noticed this little friend descending from the ceiling to sit down beside her, and instead of being frightened away, she yelled for me to come see it. I was mildly surprised — it’s a male Steatoda triangulosa, which have been rather scarce this past summer (it’s generally been a poor summer for all spiders this year).
People are always going on and on about the itsie-bitsie cutesy-wootsy toe beans that cats have. I don’t get it — those are the ends of the limbs a predator uses to kill its prey, and they aren’t particularly interesting structurally.
Far better are the complex sticky hairs spiders use to climb. Not only are they cute, but they’ve been written up in a mechanical engineering journal. Point: spiders.
Don’t believe me? Look at these adorable little tootsies!
Enhance!
See? Cute!
This is a daily mundane scene in my lab — a little country spider having a light lunch — but it’s the music and sound effects that make it fun.
That’s probably Steatoda. David Lynch needs a macro lens, though.
(via Great American Satan)
