If only the poster of the image had had the same consideration. I had half a mind to flag it – and “off topic” would stick because it isn’t an arachnid. I sure don’t appreciate coming here to discuss arachnids and then, with no warning, suddenly being shown decapitated animals!
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Maybe these can help…?
One of my favorite moments when photographing jumping spiders (another sentence I never would have thought I’d write!), is when they pause, turn and gaze right at you with their adorable, liquid eyes…
Attulus fasciger (Asiatic Wall Jumping Spider)
…especially when it’s a new species for me…
Synemosyna formica (Slender Ant-mimic Jumping Spider)
…or just a less frequently seen one…
Hentzia mitrata (White-jawed Jumping Spider)
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Or when they give you the fist-bump of approval (aka taping your finger lightly)!
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I found this pretty little orb weaver taking advantage of my moth lights in Costa Rica. Small but very colorful. I do not know the species.
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Not my observation, but I had no idea spiders could be bilateral gynandromorphs, let alone a species as strongly dimorphic as Misumena vatia:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/293778918
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That’s crazy! Bilateral gynandromorphs are so strange looking.
awesomeeeeeeeee
thanks for sharing here!
One thing I have always wondered about bilateral gynandromorphs: can they “feel” that they are gynandromorphs?
I use the word "feel’ in the broadest possible sense: if you figure that sex hormones in turn affect dimorphic behaviors, that means that the organism “feels like doing” different things depending on its sex. Males “feel like” doine male things, females “feel like” doing female things. We aren’t supposed to use the word gender when referring to nonhuman animals, but it seems a lot like gender to me; people’s gender identity is something they feel, but the gendered things they do also stem from what they “feel like doing.”
We humans don’t have bilateral gynandromorphs, but if we did, some of them could probably articulate what it “feels like” to be one, just as intersex and transgender people can.
http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/298580421
Found this Tarantula while UVing for scorpions tonight.
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It’s not a submission yet, but here’s my highest-altitude observation of a spider, at 2517 meters (Lespezi Peak, 14 degrees Celsius)
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This fishing spider I found is definitely one of my favorite encounters, they are enormous!
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Nice! I didn’t know fishing spiders grew so big!
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I recently had a pretty cool scorpion encounter!
http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/304137748
The Lighter Freshly Molt Scorpion was being dragged by a Brighter Scorpion. They were pushing back but the Brighter Scorpion was pretty easily dragging them. They had their pincers locked together and I assume that the Brighter Scorpion was taking advantage of the Freshly Molt Scorpion which was most likely softer. We left for a while and came back, where the Freshly Molt Scorpion was now pushing back and rapidly stinging at the other scorpion. After a few stings the other scorpion let go and they both walked off.
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This was last week, but I’ve been busy with house hunting and other stuff.
I caught these two pholcids in the act:
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I saw another green spider yesterday!
Observation at https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/305461983.
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Ive seen a lot of stretch spiders (Tetragnatha) this year and was wondering if anyone knows of ways to determine species aside from genital examination?
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In North America, we’re able to identify T. viridis (it’s green) and T. caudata (its abdomen extends in a “tail” beyond its spinnerets), but then there are (at least) 10 widespread, common Tetragnatha species which I, at least, am hesitant to ID. We have drawings and descriptions of all these species, and there are obvious colour and shape differences (BugGuide has more than a dozen holding bins grouped by pattern of markings), but we don’t know which colour patterns correspond to which species, or whether there’s a one-to-one correspondence at all, because the descriptions and drawings were all done from specimens “preserved” in alcohol, which leeches out the colours.
I have some tentative features to look for to ID other species, but nothing I’m confident enough to use to correct existing IDs. For example, your observation might be T. elongata because her chelicerae are as long as her head, and would be even longer on a male.
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