#pholcidae — Public Fediverse posts

A nap ízeltlábúja a pókok álkaszáspókok családjába tartozó mintás álkaszáspók - Hoplopholcus forskali https://www.izeltlabuak.hu/faj/mintas-alkaszaspok/talalatok #mintásÁlkaszáspók #HoplopholcusForskali #álkaszáspókok #Pholcidae #pókok #Araneae #CitizenScience #KözösségiTudomány

Both my current spiders (cobweb spider and cellar spider) molted this week!

OK, so you know how instead of gradually turning rust-red like iron does, copper turns from, well, copper to light blueish-green, and how copper compounds will turn a flame blue-green? Well, arthropod hemolymph (their equivalent of blood) uses copper-containing proteins to transport oxygen, and so spider "blood" is blueish-green—like how our iron-rich blood is red.

You usually can't see it, but right after molting this spider is unusually translucent (the exoskeleton is still hardening up) and the legs still have a distinct blue-green hue.

Bonus pic: ._.

#DailySpiderPic #SpidersOfMastodon #spiders #Araneae #Pholcidae

#SpiderSunday: Look who molted!

#DailySpiderPic #SpidersOfMastodon #spiders #Araneae #Pholcidae

#SpiderSunday: a tantalizing glimpse inside the abdomen of the _Pholcus_ cellar spider. ???

#DailySpiderPic #SpidersOfMastodon #spiders #Araneae #Pholcidae

It's that time of the week again: time to feed the spiders. I think the cellar spider (_Pholcus_) in the jar won't need food for a while—I've never seen one so fat! I also managed to get three fruit flies into the orbweaver's (_Larinioides_') web with tweezers.

#DailySpiderPic #SpidersOfMastodon #spiders • #Araneae #Araneidae #Pholcidae

The cellar spider (_Pholcus_) under the radiator in my bedroom, enjoying a hand-delivered flightless fruit fly (with a second course wrapped up nearby). Note the distinctive eye arrangement: ( ∵ .. ∵ )

I'm simply amazed by how well these spiders can survive in very dry environments with extremely little food!

#SpiderSunday #DailySpiderPic #SpidersOfMastodon #spiders • #Araneae #Pholcidae

A large crop of fruit flies (_Drosophila hydei_) hatched today. Coincidentally I noticed a tiny orbweaver, barely more than a spiderling, had made a web on the inside of my window, so I carefully used a paintbrush to hold a fruit fly in the web, which it promptly took.

I had also found a smallish cellar spider under the shelves I use as a nightstand, so I moved it into the large jar I had used for the black widow, and, after giving it some time to acclimate, put in several fruit flies. It has already caught and wrapped up three. (Cellar spiders are well known to be impressive hunters.)

Neither are large enough to eat more than a few fruit flies a week, so if I want to make a dent in the flies I must search the apartment for more spiders…

#DailySpiderPic #SpidersOfMastodon #spiders • #Araneae #Araneidae #Pholcidae

#Arachtober 18: yesterday I was showering and only noticed this cellar spider (family Pholcidae; I assume _Pholcus phalangioides_) when it was half-drowned. I fished it out and laid it on a piece of toilet paper, and when it was dry gave it a Q-tip dipped in slightly diluted honey, which it grasped with front legs and drank. (Anecdotally, spiders seem to prefer sugary water to plain. I'd typically use sugar syrup, but didn't have any prepared.)

Later saw it in a couple different places around the bathroom, and now I don't know where it's gone; I hope the cat didn't get it.

Cellar spiders are not typically thought of as "cute" spiders, but look at their eyes! They look like ._. (well, more accurately, ∵ .. ∵)

#DailySpiderPic #SpidersOfMastodon #spiders • #Araneae #Pholcidae

#SpiderSunday: under a stone ledge, a cellar spider (family Pholcidae) clutches her bundle of eggs.

Most spiders wrap eggs in sacs of protective silk and fix them to surfaces or hang them from a silk line. Some spiders carry their egg sacs around with them (e.g. Sparassidae, Pisauridae, Lycosidae). Others have eggs lightly scattered over a leaf and covered with a few thin lines of silk, which they guard (e.g. some Salticidae). Cellar spiders like this, however, wrap their eggs very lightly into a ball and carry it in their jaws. Towards hatching, you will be able to see the baby spiders' legs forming inside the eggs as curved stripes.

#ArthroBeauty #DailySpiderPic #SpidersOfMastodon #spiders #SpiderBehaviour #Araneae #Pholcidae

A bit of #OpenAccess #Arachnews:

How do forested buffers around rivers affect the diet of predators like trout and spiders? In the abundant fall season, both get most of their food from terrestrial sources! I'm not sure exactly what this means because ecology is really hard so read the paper yourself: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352249623000319#s0040 :OpenAccess:

Two new species of eyeless, cave-dwelling pholcids described. One is from Australia's ancient Pilbara, a remnant from before Australia aridified. Another is from lava tubes on Réunion Island. Plus some philosophical questions about what a cave is, really. https://subtbiol.pensoft.net/article/105798/ :OpenAccess:

#SciComm #arachnids #spiders #Pholcidae #Tetragnathidae #Lycosidae #caves #ecology #taxonomy