I told you I was running away from home this afternoon! I was walking for 2 or 3 hours, and now my quads are killing me–I’ve been sedentary for too long. I didn’t have much luck finding any interesting spiders, but the bushes are alive with spider food, swarms of gnats and midges, and if you feed them they will come.
As soon as I got home, of course, I find a spider on my garage door. It’s a very small Attulus fasciger, and it has been hunting successfully. That’s a midge of some sort, totally wrecked in the spiders jaws.
Asiatic Wall Jumping Spider
More will be coming. It is that time of year. Hooray!
What do you feed the gnats and midges to get them to come? ;-)
FWIW, I gather they are mostly (?) nectivorous or sap sucking. I know that locally a lot of our Aussie native orchids are pollinated by gnats and midges with them playing key roles at the base of the food chain as well in pollination generally. I presume the same holds on the opposite side of the world’s largest ocean. Also, pretty sure, you meant the gnats and midges feed the spiders which, I gather, are almost all obligate carnivores with maybe a single* exception or two..
.* See : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bagheera_kiplingi
PS. Then again, aren’t midges famous for biting people and presumably doing so because they are feeding on our blood – but is this the same as with mozzies where only one sex (female) does that and otherwise they do feed on nectar as mosquitos do? Dunno. Something I’d have to look up.
Are there any spiders who specialise on sand flies? The Swedish mountain terrain sometimes requires a goddamn biohazard suit to keep the bloodthirsty bastards away.
@ ^ birgerjohansson :Do any insects ever get legally wed?
Our front porch is alive with what we call Mayflies around here. And spiders. Lots of spiders. I tried to get a photo of a whopper on the ceiling yesterday. It’s got a big, black abdomen, a black head and black legs. Don’t know what sort it is but it looks spunky.
My backyard compost bin is buzzing with gnats and fruit flies. It’s become a spider and praying mantis hangout.
I found a European hornet in my house on May day but I haven’t seen any spiders yet. I’ll likely see some house centipedes soon no doubt.
Your “spider hug” picture is so CUTE! SQUEE!
@#4 StevoR
It took me a few minutes to even understand what you were talking about, but now I get it and it really isn’t very funny. Words change meanings over time, and frankly here in the 21st century I would look with much disdain on anyone who used the word bastard in its original meaning to refer to any particular person. You didn’t do that, but you give off vibes as if you have at some point.
@ ^ moarscienceplz : It was a joke based on the old meaning of that word – and, no I wouldn’t use it to refer to someone in that original sense nor have I done.
Leave Stevo alone. As jokes go on Pharyngula it’s par for the course. X-D
@1 & 2. Have now done a wikicheck and, yeah, both midges and gnats are types of small flies in the Diptera family :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midge
With quite diverse natures depending on species. So, yeah, it really depends on the exact midge or gnat species.