#theridiidae — 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

#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)

#SpidersOfMastodon #spiders #Theridiidae #Latrodectus

#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)

#SpidersOfMastodon #spiders #Theridiidae #Latrodectus

#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)

#SpidersOfMastodon #spiders #Theridiidae #Latrodectus

#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)

#SpidersOfMastodon #spiders #Theridiidae #Latrodectus

#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)

#SpidersOfMastodon #spiders #Theridiidae #Latrodectus

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

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

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

Dinnertime for Sabella!

I was able to get some photos capturing her interesting dorsal markings.

#ArthroBeauty #DailySpiderPic #spiders #Araneae #Theridiidae #Latrodectus

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

#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.

#DailySpiderPic #spiders #Araneae #Theridiidae #Latrodectus

It's Sabella!

#ArthroBeauty #DailySpiderPic #spiders #Araneae #Theridiidae #Latrodectus

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

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

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

#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

a story, taken over the span of a few weeks

#DailySpiderPic #spiders #insects #Araneae #Theridiidae #Hymenoptera #Braconidae? #parasitism #parasites