#theridiidae — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #theridiidae, aggregated by home.social.
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#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.
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#BREAKING: new Travis McEnery video just dropped and it's a 1h20m look at the black widow spider!! https://youtu.be/DHl_wRE4H0Y
(Two of the arachnologists who regularly advise on the series have studied black widows so this is gonna be a good one)
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Got quite the shock just now when I saw my pet _Parasteatoda_ had made an egg sac!!
She has molted since I caught her, so it's not fertilized, she just made it on her own initiative. I didn't think she was full grown! I'm just very surprised. Uh…happy Valentine's Day?
#DailySpiderPic #SpidersOfMastodon #spiders #Araneae #Theridiidae
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The little cobweb spider molted! This is her second molt in my care (she first molted right after I put her in a container).
She's only a few millimetres long. I think she's a _Parasteatoda_, which can get to about the size of a pea.
#DailySpiderPic #SpidersOfMastodon #spiders • #Araneae #Theridiidae
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#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
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#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
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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
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Side note: I am ashamed to say that Sabella the black widow is still absolutely terrible at catching flies. She'll sense a fly and pull on the web as she gets near, except it's almost always with such force that it makes the fly fall out of the web, and she's left fumbling around like "where the fuck did it go?"
After months, she has not even learned that the flies hang out on the twigs that serve as scaffolding for her web, and all she has to do is climb along the twigs.
I think in the wild she would have long since perished and she only gets enough food because I throw in exorbitant amounts of flies.
#DailySpiderPic #SpidersOfMastodon #spiders • #Araneae #Theridiidae
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New digs for Sabella the black widow! Larger jar (56 oz./1656 mL), plus a wide piece of bark to hide behind, coco coir and clay pebble substrate, and cork dots for anchor points. She was easily coaxed into the new jar with a paintbrush. Now I just have to leave her alone for a while until she gets a web set up.
You can't see it, but the lid has window screen glued to the inside, for ventilation.
#DailySpiderPic #SpidersOfMastodon #spiders #Araneae #Theridiidae #Latrodectus
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Mealtime for Sabella the black widow! Dumped in several fruit flies about an hour and she's already caught and wrapped up three.
#DailySpiderPic #SpidersOfMastodon #spiders #Araneae #Theridiidae #ArthroBeauty
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After several days of refusing food and staying in the same position at the top of her jar, Sabella molted! This is her second molt in my care.
I gave her water, but will wait for a few days for her new exoskeleton to harden before feeding her more.
#DailySpiderPic #spiders #SpidersOfMastodon #Araneae #Theridiidae #Latrodectus
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Got a fresh container of fruit flies and fed several to Sabella. She frantically flew back and forth in her web wrapping them up and dragging them to a central spot, although she often tugged on the web with such eagerness that the flies fell out and escaped.
#ArthroBeauty #DailySpiderPic #SpidersOfMastodon #spiders #Araneae #Theridiidae #Latrodectus #Diptera #Drosophilidae #Drosophila
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Dinnertime for Sabella!
I was able to get some photos capturing her interesting dorsal markings.
#ArthroBeauty #DailySpiderPic #spiders #Araneae #Theridiidae #Latrodectus
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Sabella.
(Somewhat out of focus because she was just out of range, and it's through her glass jar.)
#DailySpiderPic #bugstodon #spiders #Araneae #Theridiidae #Latrodectus
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#BREAKING: Sabella the black widow molted!!
When I checked in on her earlier today I had a feeling she might, something about the way she was hanging in her web, but honestly mostly hopeful imagination. After a grocery trip and dinner I came back and noticed something else in the web—her old exoskeleton!!
I was going to feed her today but I'll hold off for a day or two to let her new exoskeleton harden up more.
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I have named the black widow Sabella, after Tanith Lee's femme fatale space vampire. Here she is drinking from her web right after I misted it with water.
#ArthroBeauty #DailySpiderVid #spiders #Araneae #Theridiidae #Latrodectus
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widow found in neighbour's co-worker's grapes update: got her new digs (jar with some sticks in it) and some fruit flies. she's just had her first meal in who knows how long!
#DailySpiderPic #arachnids #spiders #Araneae #Theridiidae #Latrodectus
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The only good thing about Monday: #MiteMonday. Here's a old pic from the summer: a cobweb spider feeds on a small parasitengone mite (I can't decide whether it's Trombidiidae or Erythraeidae), with another nearby in its web.
#DailyMitePic #Mitestodon #mites #DailySpiderPic #spiders #Theridiidae #Acari #Parasitengona #macro #ArthroBeauty
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#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
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#Arachtober 15: a beautiful candy-striped cobweb spider (_Enoplognatha_). Peppermint flavoured? :thaenkin:
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#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. -
When I took this picture, all I saw was the dead orbweaver with its abdomen covered with mold. Only later I noticed the little _Theridion_ cobweb spider perched back-to-back with it!
The orbweaver isn't curled up like dead spiders normally are. Perhaps this fungus is an entomopathogenic one that parasitized and paralyzed the spider before it died.
#DailySpiderPic #spiders #Araneae #Theridiidae #Araneidae #fungi #sporespondence
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accidentally turned on the front camera when taking pictures of a _Steatoda_ (_S. borealis_ or _S. bipunctata_?) I found under a piece of bark
#bugstodon #selfie #DailySpiderPic #arachnids #spiders #Araneae #Theridiidae #macro
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#WeevilWednesday: Took a photo of this black vine weevil (_Otiorhynchus sulcatus_) late the other night. The next afternoon, I saw it had fallen prey to the common house spider (_Parasteatoda tepidariorum_) living nearby. Press F to pay respects.
#insects #beetles #weevils #Coleoptera #Curculionidae #Entiminae • #DailySpiderPic #arachnids #spiders #Araneae #Theridiidae #macro
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a story, taken over the span of a few weeks
#DailySpiderPic #spiders #insects #Araneae #Theridiidae #Hymenoptera #Braconidae? #parasitism #parasites
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It's candy-striped spider livestream time!! https://www.youtube.com/live/MHZxvvpqW20
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The pale _lineata_ form of the candy-striped cobweb spider (_Enoplognatha ovata_) blends in very well with past-their-peak milkweed blossoms! Taken on yesterday's night walk.
You—yes, you—can help scientists learn more about this species' interesting behaviour! Learn why these spiders are cool and how to contribute on Travis McEnery's livestream tomorrow, 1 p.m. EST/17:00 UTC. See my earlier post: https://flipping.rocks/@nev/110713541068155134
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Aphid predators seen lately:
- Enoplognatha cobweb spider on goldenrod
- Ladybug on goldenrod
- Lacewing larva on chicory
- Whirligig mite on…I don't know what this plant is#DailySpiderPic #DailyMitePic #Mitestodon #arachnids #spiders #mites #insects #beetles #lacewings #Araneae #Theridiidae #Acari #Anystidae #Coleoptera #Coccinellidae #Neuroptera #predation #macro