Springtime for Spiders


I have been so impatient for the spiders to flourish once again, and have been keeping an eye on what looks like a hotspot for Parasteatoda egg sacs and spiderlings. Nothing there yet, but at least I get to show you the spider paradise and where I expect to see more spiders soon.

Then my wife discovered the first Theridiidae of the spring scampering across some cardboard! I caught her (I’m pretty sure it’s a her, but she’s small and juvenile), and brought her into the lab.

The new spider is named Iðunn. May she be fertile and fruitful.

Comments

  1. blf says

    The mildly deranged penguin points out if Iðunn fails to deliver, she could be used to make a spider-based Æbleflæsk. (I point out Iðunn is a small spider, she points out poopyhead has plenty of spiders & groundhogs & students & zebrafishys — and even teh evil cat… I suggest she’s had enough port & cheese for this evening…)

  2. says

    Do spiders like showers?
    There’s one in our bath ant today while taking a shower I turned around and saw it dangling just above me. It neither rose nor descended, but I had to take care not to make a movement one of us would come to regret.

  3. davidc1 says

    “Springtime for spiders and harvestmen ”
    “PZ is happy and gay ”
    “He’s searching for spiders in every place ”
    “Look out Doc Myers
    is on the case ”

    That fair tuckered me out ,going for a lie down .

  4. Sean Boyd says

    Have you ever stopped to consider, PZ, that your difficulties in getting a self-sustaining colony of spiders going is that these are ‘murikan spiders? You’re just setting them up with free housing and free food and all the sex they can handle…these aren’t any namby-pamby socialist spiders, man! It’s Charlotte’s Web, not AOC’s Web! These spiders spin silk of red, white and blue, and all their webs are shaped like tiny ‘murikan flags. They need to be left to fend for themselves…they’re makers, not takers. Just put some Hannity and Ingraham on the radio, open those test tubes up, and let freedom ring, baby! Woooh!

    No, as a matter of fact, I’ve never studied biology. Why do you ask?

  5. Rich Woods says

    May she be fertile and fruitful.

    Unless you find her a Bragi you’re never going to know.