#801: Viciria

Viciria are a Family of jumping spiders, characterised by their slender abdomens. Like all spiders, he is carnivorous, feeding on insects.

This species is Viciria praemandibulari, the wide-jawed viciria, and this is a male.The female is more brightly coloured. Like many jumping spiders, Viciria display a level of maternal care, with the female tending to her eggs and newly hatched offspring. The wide-jaws viciria lives in Indonesia, Singapore, Sulawesi and Sumatra.

Creature Feature #745: Tarantula

There are approximately 900 species of Tarantula, with a range that encompasses much of the tropics and subtropical regions. The smallest species is the size of a fingernail, the largest as big as a dinner plate. These hairy arachnids come in a variety of colours, with brown being popular, but there is also the brilliant blue Peacock Tarantula, and various other species, including this Mexican Red-kneed Tarantula. Some species are aboreal, others terrestrial. All are predators, using ambush techniques to hunt their prey - which ranges in size from tiny insects, up to lizards, mice and even birds, depending on the species (and the size).

Tarantulas are sometimes kept as pets. They  are all venomous, but there are no recorded fatalities from being bitten. Once again, the venom varies across species - some being no worse than a wasp sting, others causing muscle cramps, severe pain and hallucinations.

#715: Spider

Happy Halloween!

The third Arachnid this month, the Spider is probably the most well known of the Class. Spiders are characterised by their eight legs and venom-injecting fangs. With over 45 thousand species identified, they occur on every continent excluding Antarctica and every habitat except the air and the sea. They are almost exclusively carnivorous and use a variety of techniques to hunt. Orb web spiders build sticky webs,  in which to trap their prey; wolf and jumping spiders stalk, ambush and pounce; others fling bolas made from web, or use trickery to capture and devour other spiders. Because they are unable to digest solids, Spiders must liquify their prey before consumption. To enable this, they flood it with digestive enzymes and grind it between their pedipalps.

Spiders are useful in pest and insect control, their venom can be used in medicine or pesticides, and the spider silk werbbing can be used to make cloth. Yet they are one of the most commonly feared types of animal in the world. According to statistics, about 50% of women, and 10% of men, are scared of spiders. This may be an instinctual fear, as only a few species are actually harmful to humans and are unlikely to bite unless provoked and trapped. Spiders are beautiful too, they come in an array of colours and shapes.

#711: Solifuge

The Solifuge is a speciesw of arachnid, sometimes known as the Camel Spider, although she is not a spider. Fearsome in appearance, and growing up to 15 cm in length, she is the stuff of nightmares. The apparent front pair of limbs are in fact sensory organs, known as pedipalps. Her most impressive feature are her jaws - which can be up to a third of her body length. These are used to seize potential prey - invertebrates, lizards, small birds, rodents - and grind them to a pulp so that they can be digested. Solifuges are not venomous and of no threat to humans, except for the horror/surprise factor.

#683: Scorpion

The Scorpions are an Order of arachnid, characterised by their grasping pedipalps and narrow, segmented tail with its venomous stinger. There are around 1750 identified species, ranging across every continent except Antarctica and being absent from many islands. The greatest variation occurs within the tropics.  Scorpions scurry through leaf litter, beneath rocks, up and down trees and across intertidal zones. Predatory in nature, most species feed on other invertebrates, but a larger species will pursuit small vertebrates. Prey is crushed in the claws, or pierced by the venomous tail barb.

This is an African Tri-colour Scorpion, of which there are around 60 species, some of which are popular in the pet trade.

Creature Feature #574: Peacock Jumping Spider

The Peacock Spiders are a Genus of Jumping Spider found in Australia. The male performs an elaborate courtship dance where he raises their third pair of legs and their abdomen, flashing their brightly colours to attract a mate. He inhabits low bushes and the ground, and like all Jumping Spiders follows a nomadic lifestyle, stalking and hunting insect prey.

If you're really lucky, you might get a second peacock spider tomorrow. Otherwise it'll be an actual peacock!

Creature Feature #539: Orb-weaver Spider

Orb-weaver Spiders are a large Family of arachnids, named for their spiral-shaped webs.These webs are an engineering feat, created first by floating a thread on the wind to a nearby anchoring point, then securing it and making a Y shape, upon which the rest of the structure follows. Non-sticky radii are created next, enabling the spider to manouvere about her web without becoming stuck, as she adds in the adhesive layers. She thren retreats under cover and waits for insects to blunder into her web. Once captured she will bite it, paralysing it, then wrap it and store it for future consumption. Every night she eats her web and builds a fresh one.

This is an Autralian Garden Orb-weaver Spider. She comes in a variety of sizes, colours and shapes and is found in gardens all over Australia.

Not that long ago, I watched a spider succesfully subdue a bee, a complicated dance involving much darting forward and throwing silk, then dodging out of the way of her stinger. Eventually the bee weaked and the spider wrapped her up thoroughly, snipped the threads holding the bundle in place and dragged her up to store under the guttering. It was impressive to watch. Someone later suggested that I should have saved the bee - I would like to say that a, we do not interfere with nature and b, it was already pretty sluggish when I began watching the show. A short while later, someone washed our windows and destroyed the web in the process, but luckily the spider had her food and retreated into safety, thus could be back the next day to create another one.

Creature Feature #520: Nursery-web Spider

Nursery-web Spiders resemble wolf spiders. There are numerous species, the most well-known being the European Pisaura mirabilis. During courtship, the male spider presents the female with an insect, wrapped in webbing. Whilst the female is distracted, her mandibles otherwise engaged, he will surreptitiously mate with her, then make his escape before she decides to have him for dessert. If the female tries to escape wtih the gift, he may feign death, becoming limp and allowing himself to be dragged along until he can "resurrect" and resume copulation. The egg sac is carried in the mother's jaws, until they near hatching, when she constructs an elaborate tent-like nursery, puts her eggs inside and stands guard.

Creature Feature #369: Katipo

The Katipo is endemic to New Zealand. She is the only poisonous spider to occur here naturally. Her closest relatives are the Australian redback and the American black widow spiders. She spins her rather haphazard web near the sea shore, among the sand dunes. Her venom induces severe pain, hypertension, seizure and even coma. An antivenom exists and there have been no recorded deaths from Katipo bite since the 19th century. The male is considerably smaller - about 1/5th her size - with a white abdomen and brown carapace.

Creature Feature #361: Jumping Spider

The Jumping Spider Family, Salticidae, contains more than 5,000 species. These eight-legged hunters have excellent vision, with four pairs of eyes, including her large anterior eyes. This vision assists her in hunting, courtship and navigation. She is a diurnal hunter, preying on small insects. She makes her leaps by altering the pressure of fluid within them, allowing her to jump several times the length of her body. She does not build webs, using her silk as a safety rope, but occasionally will create a small silken shelter to protect her - and her eggs. Certain species of Jumping Spider have been shown to be capable of learning, recognising and remembering colours, and changing her behaviour accordingly.

Creature Feature #211: Emperor Scorpion

The Emperor Scorpion is one of the largest scorpions in the world, growing to an average of 20cm long (EEK!). He can be found in the rainforests and savannah of West Africa. Thankfully, his sting is merely painful, not fatal. He buries himself in the ground during the day, hunting for termites and other insects at night. To feed, he grasps the prey in his pincers, injecting it with poison that liquifies the internal structure within the victim's exoskeleton. Cannibalism is not uncommon, females will eat their mate or their own offspring, and males will sometimes kill each other. Popular in the pet trade, the Emperor Scorpion has been pillaged from the wild and is now considered endangered.