#arachtober — Public Fediverse posts

#Arachtober 15: it's _Zygiella_ courtship season! The males hang around the edges of the females' webs, plucking and strumming rhythmically to communicate. Here's a male with his long "elbowed" pedipalps; a female; and a cobweb spider preying on an unlucky male suitor who got too close.

#ArthroBeauty #spiders #Araneae #Araneidae #Theridiidae

#Arachtober 14: #RIP Sabella the black widow.

I had her for ten months exactly (https://flipping.rocks/@nev/11157397654673256). Her last molt was about six months ago.

I have added her to my collection.

I didn't have the sort of attachment to her that one has with a pet that, you know, can perceive you are a human being and interact with you and that you can handle and whatnot, but I will miss the bumbling little murderess. :blobsad:

#DailySpiderPic #SpidersOfMastodon #spiders • #Araneae #Theridiidae

#Arachtober 13: while I was in the grass taking the photos I posted yesterday, every movement would send little leafhoppers (family Cicadellidae) springing away. This one leaped right into the web of a tiny _Theridula_ cobweb spider, who quickly seized it.

(At least, I think it's a leafhopper, but true bugs aren't my wheelhouse so please correct me if I'm wrong!)

edit: accidentally the date

#DailySpiderPic #SpidersOfMastodon #spiders • #Araneae #Theridiidae

Belated #Arachtober 5: this absolutely minute, delicately pink cobweb spider (perhaps a young _Steatoda triangulosa_?) I found under a leaf in the garden while I was looking for anystids. It is so small it could easily be a mite! It has already captured an ant, likely one of the _Prenolepis imparis_ so common in the garden.

#ArthroBeauty #DailySpiderPic #SpidersOfMastodon #spiders • #Araneae #Theridiidae

#Arachtober 27: The trunk of a regal yellow tree (linden or something similar?) was busy with mites. I found a tiny cobweb spider feeding on a whirligig mite, and a red velvet mite feeding on prey in another cobweb spider's web!

#DailySpiderPic #DailyMitePic #Mitestodon #MiteBehaviour #arachnids #spiders #mites #Acari #Anystidae #Trombidiidae #Araneae #Theridiidae

#Arachtober 15: a beautiful candy-striped cobweb spider (_Enoplognatha_). Peppermint flavoured? :thaenkin:

#DailySpiderPic #arachnids #spiders #Araneae #Theridiidae

#Arachtober 14: A wasp's progress. Over a few weeks in July, I saw a cobweb spider on a fire hydrant parasitized by a wasp larva, then the wasp's pupal cocoon, then at last the empty cocoon.

Some parasitoid* wasps alter the spider's behaviour to make them spin a web more suited to sheltering the pupating larva; not sure if this was the case here.

There are also hyperparasitoids that target parasitoids, so for all I know the wasp itself may have been parasitized and a different species emerged!

#DailySpiderPic #spiders #wasps #parasitism #Araneae #Theridiidae #Hymenoptera

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* "Parasitoid" means a type of parasite that eventually kills its host rather than simply feeding on it. Your typical parasitoid is a solitary wasp that lays eggs on hosts which become larvae that devour the host, often from within.