i’ve had a few messages about this particular spider so here’s some info on it!
these spiders belong to the genus neobrettus. they are cryptic jumping spiders, usually mottled brown or grey, that rely on stealth to navigate tree trunks in the rainforests and neighbouring gardens of malaysia, bhutan and vietnam. despite being jumping spiders, these guys don’t actually jump. instead they move smoothly and quickly from one position to another. their unique fuzzy appearance is likely to be an attempt at mimicry of an unsavoury caterpillar. not much else is known about them as they are very difficult to spot.
From (The Spider Shop) an entire small bathroom as a whipspider habitat is such an amazing aesthetic concept and I’m sure they love it when the lights are out and there’s no humans bothering them, HOWEVER I’d be so worried about them getting hurt or lost when the door is opened and it looks like the toilet is still used by people?!
I don’t know how they’re clinging to those tile walls either, my one can’t climb anything smoother than bare rough brick.
Oh yeah you might notice how they’re arranged really evenly on that wall, too – that’s actually how they live in the wild!
They inhabit caves, hollow trees or sheer rock walls in the tropics, and will spend most of their time just sitting in one spot, slowly slowly waving their ultra-long “whips” (legs modified into feelers) all around themselves in a circle to search for any passing prey.
If they feel the whip of a fellow spider they will move just out of their way, so they all end up exactly at “arm’s length” from one another in a sort of loose grid or checkerboard of little hunting spots.
It’s almost like a perfect video game setup. If you’re an insect lost in a whipspider cave, you’ve got to navigate this minefield of nearly blind predators whose huge long skinny arms are just constantly, silently circling in search of YOU!
Not a lot of things they eat are really smart enough to last very long that way.
Actually even if they were smart this is still the setup they’re dealing with:
WAIT ANOTHER THING I FORGOT
So they live in total darkness, and most of their prey, like cockroaches, rely entirely on touch to navigate that environment.
So, the prey feels something brushing it in the dark, something little and light, just the tip of something, no big deal….and has an instinct to just move AWAY from that thing, right? Problem solved?! But since the arms reach around so far, it often means a situation like this:
….And if the prey doesn’t just blindly march straight into its mouth from there, the whipspider will do this:
It doesn’t need to pounce or chase. The prey doesn’t have a direction to go where it won’t bump into one of the arms, turn around, and try to go a different way, like a roomba, as the arms slowly close in and shrink that corral more and more towards the predator’s jaws!
I’m not someone who believes in ghosts, but I was sitting in my room, alone and in the dark, and I heard the strings of my violin being softly plucked.
My violin is hanging on the wall several feet away.
So I gathered my courage, grabbed my phone, and used the camera light to investigate.
And found this.
A goddamn spider was playing my violin. Not even joking. The little shit.
I think I’d have preferred a ghost….
So anyway…. *tiny incoherent cough exhumes from spider* Here’s Wonderwall.
bwa ha ha ha
I hesitated before posting, but I bet I know what’s going on here. The plucking was pretty rhythmic, right?
Male spiders pluck the webs of female spiders in a pattern to determine if the female is interested.
That spider was trying to mate with your violin…
Ahh so it’s a boy(I just assume every insect I see is a girl) that’s such a cute mating ritual!
He just wants love!
The behavior would indicate that it is a male. Only females weave webs. Male spiders have to be careful not to be mistaken for prey and eaten, so they pluck the web. Poor thing didn’t exactly get any this time!
Poor spider thinking “Damn this web was made by a strong spider, a real awesome spider, can I possibly get with this boss ass spider??”
poor little hyperion, dreaming of the moon
“hello, I am not food, are you looking for romance or should I leave in order to continue not being food?”
A female orbweaver spider (Argiope sp.), Sinton TX. July 2013.
One of the largest I’ve seen, but everything is bigger in Texas.
These orbweavers spend most of their mornings rebuilding their webs along fieldsides, grasslands, and in gardens. Many produce a zig-zag pattern in the center of their web called a stabilimentum, which was, at one point, thought to help hold the web together. Nowadays, it is thought as a means to reflect light in the web that attracts unsuspecting insects, and future meals.
She’s all fat with eggs, looks like.
Orb weavers are cool because they’re really chill. They just sit in their web, and that’s it. They don’t skitter around all fast or jump on things. Plus, they make huge, pretty orb webs.
Spiders balloon. Newly-hatched babies, or small ones that need to leave the area, climb up to a high place and release several long, thin strands of silk into the air, which allow them to float on the wind, attached to that silk. Sometimes they let go of it after they land, and that’s what you encounter. (or sometimes a spider is attached. yeah, spiders can glide. sorry.)
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