Arachnid Discussion Topic!

Saw this spider eating a scorpion on my recent trip. Thought it was interesting.



https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/323825612

6 Likes

Seems to be a rather dusty Hogna ‘incognita’. Considering the month, it is likely a gravid female. Coloration similar to antelucana with the same broad black band on tibia IV but with a quite different carapace medial band. Adult females tend to stay near their burrows but the need to eat a lot sometimes trumps that.

2 Likes

That is an amazing looking spider, so many faces hidden within its patterns, thankyou

1 Like

Wow! You know a lot! That is impressive!

I found this spider in my backyard, and there are only 34 observations on iNat! How exciting! Apparently also a juvenile, and very cute.
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/315300868

3 Likes

Try peeling loose bark of standing or lying dead wood, which often reveals wood-dwelling Chernetid or other Cheliferoid pseudoscorpions. Their moulting or winter cocoons are lentil sized constructions of silk and debris which sometimes get detached or ripped open when the bark is peeled.
Sifting leaf litter (as already suggested) on a white plastic sheet for better contrast, or literally ‘shake the bushes’ and see what lands on a white sheet underneath.
The ones I find most often are Chernetids (looking like tiny ~ 2mm dull brown striped linseeds with arms, mostly under bark) and Neobisiids (glossy / shiny, mostly a combination of brown and reddish-bown).
Two more things: if threatened or scared, in most cases pseudoscorpions pull in their arms next to the body and usually look more roundish as one would expect. And they move surpsisingly slowly for such tiny animals, almost on our own timescale.

4 Likes

The spider that is yet another reason to check out tree trunks:

https://inaturalist.ala.org.au/observations/145626354 Herennia Oz, which is a cool name.

Which beats having no name of your own for https://inaturalist.ala.org.au/observations/257312836 . If anyone wants to do the work they are not too hard to find and a lot of iNatters in my area will appreciate being able to ID past genus level.

4 Likes

How cool! I’ll have to try some of those tips, and those are some fun facts about pseudoscorpions! Welcome to the forum!

I was so happy to find both of these species in my short trip to Darwin last June. Remarkable looking arachnids.

2 Likes

Unnamed species, formal publication next year?

1 Like

I am so looking forward to it. Would be amazing!

1 Like

Love this, after he put out the paper I remembered a possible Ctenus that I’d photographed in Brunei. I sent the pic to Peter and asked if was Bowie and he confirmed it was. Very chuffed

https://inaturalist.ala.org.au/observations/26295922

2 Likes

I do! I love identifying spiders and seeing what everyone is observing!

4 Likes

That is awesome! You have done a lot of work with spiders (You have IDed a lot for me!).
Welcome to the forum! :wink:

2 Likes

That’s what I was typing…!

1 Like

ooh. looks there is an Asian cousin for it - Phoroncidia

1 Like

to make things difficult some Neoscona show extreme variations in patterns (i have noticed some on inat from regional observations and although some maybe different species sometimes i do think there are similar ones too with pattern variation). i do think most of current Neoscona sp and Thomisus sp turns out to be synonyms with more studies later.

for example, Indian N. mukherjei has 18ish patterns iff those researcher words are to be taken for granted

During extensive collection of spiders in and around the Poona city, the present author has collected more than three hundred specimens of the species Neoscona mukerjei. During the study of this material he has also come across eighteen different colour patterns of this spider. A detailed study of the internal genitalia as well as epigyne of all different colour varieties revealed that all are of the same species because their epigyne and internal genitalia are identical which are the most important specific characters of spiders.

https://archive.org/details/c78432e5e478e89e389d164416db61317f6b28b2/page/n1/mode/2up?q=“neoscona+mukerjei”

Ofc master of patter variation goes to Parawixia dehaani which has already 10ish synonyms and i also think three more older valid Araneus sp from india are it.

1 Like

this is undescribed Plexippini sp. from Indian Eastern ghats (any guesses on Genus? - Tenkana/Evarcha/…)

and the other day for this Crossopriza lyoni we were guessing some reasons for such intriguing upward pointed abdomen postures in cellar spiders. any more guesses?

on side note, i have gained entry to this club from that second observation :rofl:

2 Likes

It makes sense considering their way of hunting, throwing silk at their prey (which will surely be easier with guidance of gravity) and then keeping their dangling prey at arms lenght wrapping them some more

1 Like

just to be clear, I am talking of this particular L-posture for cellar spiders abdomen.

so i feel these reasons could be correlations but not causations - the silk from spinnerets are dragged through legs and wrapped in multiple directions, so any posture should work equally well if that is the reason (and considering the weight of pholcid silk is extremely light, the benefits of gravity helping is negligible too) - these are also not ejecting silk like scytodidae for major gravity effects on silk.
keeping prey at length is also not related to this abdomen posture, the long legs are already doing that work, if we think of any other posture like say horizontal abdomen - it can still take effect of any gravity and also keep prey at distance from legs in that posture similarly too by moving slightly above prey.

and it seems during prey capture, the posture actually flips and so abdomen doesnt stay up there.