I have read an account of spiders being fed while on a bed of cotton wool after having
all their legs removed, I think it was Bristowe, apparently they were fine as long as fed!
Bristowe was a bit funny about having a punt at something, he describes eating spiders one afternoon whilst conversing with a young lady, he decided that the best ones tasted rather like hazel nuts. Got his book (in the New Naturalists series) upstairs some where, I must go and check it.
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Originally Posted by lithdoc  How interesting that I came across this.
I've been trying to research into this for a while. Several years ago I lived in Florida and it is notorious for spiders, especially in the rainy season. The two types of spiders that were abundant by my house were the smaller black ones with massive spines on their abdomen and silver looking spiders (some people said these are garden spiders, but their look is indeed interesting, their entire body and parts of legs are covered in what looks really like silver).
I've been monitoring two of these larger silver ones for a few months, since they lived right by the entrance to my house. They are pretty big, the diameter considering the legs is some 2.5 inches, i think. They hold their legs in pars of two. I've been watching them enlarge during rain and shrink during drought, patiently waiting day after day.
However, one day I noticed that it had lost one pair of legs and it was now holding the remaining three pairs at almost perfect 120 degree angle. I could see the short stubs of the lost legs (some 1 mm in diameter). What is more interesting, is the fact that another spider that was some couple meters away had the same thing happen to him a day later. I monitored the spiders for another month until massive rains came and both of them disappeared.
This is really interesting phenomena, yet no one has been able to explain it to me. Has anyone seen or heard of anything like this? Your responses are greatly appreciated. Thanks! |