#Arachnids

[spidersdaily]

[razehider]

this round little weirdo is Araneus triguttatus or Araneus sturmi, a couple of colorful but ambiguous species that stand out next to their beige and brown relatives. i found this one in the exact same spot where i'd found a male a month earlier, which makes me assume there was a date scheduled and she arrived really late. poor guy

(April 17th, 2025)

[crochetingwhale]

forbidden lychee

Is this a tropical orb weaver? It was huge!

We have a whole bunch of these that live at the top of our bamboo, they drop down to set up a web overnight and as the sun comes up they ball it all back up and go back to the top of the bamboo! (FL)

You are correct!!! What a chungus!!!

[dangimgood]

The news neighbors are... real spooky

[cpericardium]

I don't think "having sex" is important. What's important is arachnid locomotion is controlled by a system of hydraulic compression

[overdoso]

A aranha mais fofa da sua timeline.

[artifacts-and-arthropods]

Strange Bedfellows: these unprecedented photos show a leafcutter bee sharing its nest with a wolfspider

I stumbled across these photos while I was looking for information about leafcutter bees, and I just wanted to share them, because they're really remarkable. The images were captured by an amateur photographer named Laurence Sanders, and they depict an unprecedented scene that has garnered the attention of both entomologists and arachnologists.

The photos show a leafcutter bee and a wolfspider living in the same burrow.

The leafcutter bee (Megachile macularis) can be seen fetching freshly-cut leaves, which she'll use to line the inner walls of her nest, while the wolfspider sits at the entryway to the burrow; as the bee approaches, the wolfspider moves aside, allowing her to enter the nest, and then she simply watches as the leaf is positioned along the inner wall.

Once the leaf is in position, the bee and the spider seem to inspect the nest together, sitting side-by-side in the entryway. The leafcutter bee seems strangely at ease in the presence of the wolfspider, which is normally a voracious predator, and the wolfspider seems equally unfazed by the fact that it shares its burrow with an enormous stinging insect.

The man who took these photographs discovered the peculiar scene by accident, and he then captured a series of images over the course of about two days (these are just a few of the photos that were taken). During that two-day period, the bee was seen entering the nest with bits of foliage dozens of times, gradually constructing the walls and brood chambers of its nest, and the spider was clearly occupying the same burrow, but they did not exhibit any signs of aggression toward one another.

The photos have been examined by various entomologists and arachnologists, and those experts seem ubiquitously surprised by the behavior that these images depict. The curator of entomology at Victoria Museum, Dr. Ken Walker, noted that this may be the very first time that this behavior has ever been documented, while Dr. Robert Raven, an arachnid expert at the Queensland Museum, described it as a "bizarre" situation.

This arrangement is completely unheard of, and the photos are truly remarkable.

Sources & More Info:

Brisbane Times: The Odd Couple: keen eye spies bee and spider bedfellows in 'world-first'

iNaturalist: Megachile macularis

[dystopianroach]

how it feels to be a zoologist when my friends send me a cute social media video with an animal in it that 100% should not be there

cute caracal! why is it in your house.

what a handsome alligator! why is it in a kiddie pool in a living room.

what a beautiful cobra! why is it being kept in a walmart $5 critter keeper.

such a beautiful fox! why is it in a two foot long metal crate.

wow! footage of an endangered species of insect! NO NO NO WHY ARE YOU TOUCHING IT

[ratbugs]

just a baby!

[snototter]

A green huntsman spider (Micrommata virescens) in Sourbrodt, Belgium

by Frank Vassen

[spidersdaily]

Hanging out. Thinking about stuff.

[platypu]

orb weavers' sexual dimorphism is hilarious to me like.

me and my big beautiful wife

[jakeit]

ᴛғ ᴀɴɪᴍᴀᴛᴇᴅ ᴍᴇᴇᴛs ᴛғ ᴏɴᴇ:

[kedreeva]

She has finalized her decision and chosen the mailbox with her name on it to start making her hammock!

[azhdarchidae]

oh so i DIDNT post this huh

big honkin comm for a friend featuring the most unloved bugs of all