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#arachnid — Public Fediverse posts

Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #arachnid, aggregated by home.social.

  1. 🕷️ A jumping spider that nurses its young with milk — 4x the protein of cow's milk

    Female Toxeus magnus spiders secrete a milk-like fluid from their egg-laying opening for nearly 40 days after hatching. Newborns drink nothing else for the first 20 days and die within 11 days if the mother's milk supply is blocked.

    Even after spiderlings learn to hunt at day 20, they keep nursing alongside their own kills for another three weeks. Daughters are allowed to return to the nest after reaching adulthood, but adult sons are attacked if they try.

    This subverts the long-held assumption that lactation and extended milk-provisioning are exclusive to mammals.

    sciencenews.org/article/jumpin

    #arachnid #zoology #biology

  2. CW: Spider (Mr Fuzzylegs)

    Mr Fuzzylegs has been wandering around by house for a few days & turning up in unexpected places. Yesterday, I accidentally put my hand on him as I was going upstairs. It turns out he also has a fuzzy butt.😆 Don't worry, we didn't hurt each other. Here he is today after collecting cobwebs.

    The movie Arachnophobia made this species out to be deadly but they're actually harmless to humans.

    #AustralianAnimals #Spiders #HuntsmanSpider #Nature #Tasmania #Arachnid #straya