science – Page 5 – Neville Park

Dictynidae Drama

If you’re lucky and you know what to look for, you can watch mini wildlife documentaries unfolding in front of you. Back in late May I was lucky to witness mesh-web weavers courting and mating; I’m writing it up (including photos and video) because I couldn’t easily find anything else online about this intriguing behaviour.

Continue reading Dictynidae Drama

Pardosa update

So I went back to the meadow where I found all those wolf spiders in the hopes of finding a few Pardosa in various stages of motherhood. Enjoy!

Here’s a female wolf spider that, judging by her big round abdomen, is gravid (pregnant).

While I saw (but failed to capture) a couple spiders carrying around young, I did see some that still had egg sacs. I wonder how long it takes for them to hatch?

I had given up on catching and photographing a wolf spider with her young. I was taking a stroll by the pond before heading home when I spotted this tiny wolf spider scurrying along the pavement. It was only when I was taking the picture that I realized she was carrying a few spiderlings on her back! Usually they have more, smaller ones, but you get the picture.

Jumping Spiders I Have Known

Most wild animals are either indifferent or fearful towards humans, preferring to run away when they realize a human has noticed them — or attack when they cannot escape. Spiders are no different in this regard. Many of them are too short-sighted, or live on too small a scale, to recognize humans as other animals and not, say, unusually mobile parts of the landscape. If they do, they deduce that we are neither food nor fellow spiders (for spiders, generally antisocial creatures, these overlap considerably), and they try to get out of our way.

All this means that watching spiders is generally a one-sided relationship. Jumping spiders (family Salticidae¹) are an exception — spiders that watch back. Continue reading Jumping Spiders I Have Known

7 Things To Name-Drop In Your “Laudato Si” Thinkpiece

Pope Francis’ much-hyped encyclical drops today. Are you prepared to sound smart? Here, in no particular order, are 7 references that will convince your readers you didn’t find out what an “encyclical” was yesterday. THANK ME LATER, PUNDITS. Continue reading 7 Things To Name-Drop In Your “Laudato Si” Thinkpiece

Spiderblogging: Love Hurts

This may be my last spider post of the year. Spiders’ lives are short here, and for the past few months they have had one obsession: to mate and reproduce before they die in the winter cold. Males go wandering in search of females, often getting lost and ending up in people’s houses. Females make as many egg sacs as they can, which they will guard until they die. If the eggs last the winter, they will hatch in the spring. Continue reading Spiderblogging: Love Hurts

Spiderblogging: Orb Vs. Funnel Webs

Tangled Bank #2: My God, It’s Full of Weird Larvae

Since my last visit to the lakeside, there’s a whole new crop of increasingly bizarre insect babies to be found on milkweed, thistle, and goldenrod. Photos and explanations after the jump, brought to you by that weird person who stares at leaves.

Continue reading Tangled Bank #2: My God, It’s Full of Weird Larvae