Today, very early this morning, I had to do some stuff in Pula. Pula is the nearby city, about ten kilometers north of Medulin, the small town where I live.
On the outskirts of the city, just behind the last suburban homes situated along the road that leads to one of the surrounding villages, there is a forest park called Busoler. That's the place I never miss to visit when I'm done with the chores in the city.
Unfortunately, I didn't have much time to explore Busoler today, but fortunately, in the less than an hour I spent there, I found an interesting spider that I rarely encounter. Moreover, the spider has just caught prey, and that gave a bit of urgency and action to the macro shoot.
In this photograph, a good chunk of the prey is clearly visible through the see-through silky envelope made by the spider. I can see the shape and color of whatever is inside, but I have no idea what it could be. It looks more like some plant part than an insect or anything else a spider would like to eat.
The protagonist of today's post belongs to the Uloboridae family. Members of this unique family are the only spiders that don't have venom glands. The name of the species shown in these photographs is Hyptiotes flavidus.
Like all spiders from the genus Hyptiotes, Hyptiotes flavidus builds a triangular web.
By holding the main threads with its hind legs, the spider is holding the web under tension. When the vibrations signal the presence of the prey the releasing of the line makes the web collapse entangling the insects or other small arthropods that had stumbled upon a trap.
At the same time, the collapsing of the structure held in place because of the tension tension catapults the spider forward, toward the prey, at an amazing speed.
The threads made to catch the prey aren't equipped with glue. Their structure is the thing that makes the trap effective. Each thread has tiny fluffy silk lines surrounding the central ones. The fluff is so fine that when an insect or other potential prey brushes against it, they adhere to the hairs and spines on the prey in a way similar to what a Velcro strip does.
Maybe one day I'll be able to record or photograph the moment in which the prey is caught so you can see with your own eyes what I'm clumsily trying to explain here.
This time, I noticed the action a couple of seconds too late.
The spider was already enveloping the prey when I got ready to shoot the scene.
In this photograph, you can take a fairly good look at the fangs of the hairy little Hyptiotes flavidus. The spider is spitting a mixture of digestive fluids onto the ball that contains the immobilized prey. The external digestion will prepare the tissues of the prey to be sucked by the spider.
AND THAT'S IT. THE SPIDER CONTINUED CONSUMING ITS BREAKFAST WHILE I WAS WALKING BACK TO THE CAR THAT WOULD BRING ME HOME. AS ALWAYS HERE ON HIVE, THE PHOTOGRAPHS ARE MY WORK.
I would like to say a few words about the Arachnids community before ending this post. I don't post often here, but I like this hibernating community very much. The lack of activity may suggest that the community is dead, but I perceive it as a hibernating one.
So, why do I love the Aracnid community?
First of all, the Logo is very cool - a great mixture of the Hive logo and the Arachnid anatomy.
Second of all, I like the idea that arachnids have a community on Web 3.
Third of all - I like arachnids as much or even more than insects.
The following links will take you to the sites with more information about the protagonist of this post. I found some stuff about it there.
https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/783869-Hyptiotes-flavidus/browse_photos
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyptiotes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uloboridae
