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Stegodyphus Dumicola
Stegodyphus dumicola, commonly known as the African social spider, is a species of spider of the family Velvet spider, Eresidae or the velvet spider family. It is native to Central Africa, Central and southern Africa. This spider is one of three ''Stegodyphus'' spiders that lives a social lifestyle (''Stegodyphus lineatus, S. lineatus'', ''Stegodyphus mimosarum, S. mimosarum'', ''S. dumicola''). This spider has been studied living in large natal colonies (ranging from tens to hundreds of highly related spiders) in large, unkempt webs. Each colony is composed mainly of females, where a minority (forty percent) act as reproducers, and a majority (sixty percent) remain females and take care of the young. Males live a shorter lifespan and will largely remain in the natal nest throughout its life. Females are known for extreme Allomaternal care, allomaternal care, since all females, even unmated virgin females will take care of the young until they are eventually consumed by the brood. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Matriphagy
Matriphagy is the consumption of the mother by her offspring. The behavior generally takes place within the first few weeks of life and has been documented in some species of insects, nematode worms, pseudoscorpions, and other arachnids as well as in caecilian amphibians. The specifics of how matriphagy occurs varies among different species, but the process is best described in the Desert spider, '' Stegodyphus lineatus'', where the mother harbors nutritional resources for her young through food consumption. The mother is able to regurgitate small portions of food for her growing offspring, but between 1–2 weeks after hatching the progeny capitalize on this food source by eating her alive. Typically, offspring only feed on their biological mother as opposed to other females in the population. In other arachnid species, matriphagy occurs after the ingestion of nutritional eggs known as trophic eggs (e.g. Black lace-weaver ''Amaurobius ferox'', Crab spider ''Australomisidia ergandr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Reginald Innes Pocock
Reginald Innes Pocock F.R.S. (4 March 1863 – 9 August 1947) was a British zoologist. Pocock was born in Clifton, Bristol, the fourth son of Rev. Nicholas Pocock and Edith Prichard. He began showing interest in natural history at St. Edward's School, Oxford. He received tutoring in zoology from Sir Edward Poulton, and was allowed to explore comparative anatomy at the Oxford Museum. He studied biology and geology at University College, Bristol, under Conwy Lloyd Morgan and William Johnson Sollas. In 1885, he became an assistant at the Natural History Museum, and worked in the section of entomology for a year. He was put in charge of the collections of Arachnida and Myriapoda. He was also given the task to arrange the British birds collections, in the course of which he developed a lasting interest in ornithology. The 200 papers he published in his 18 years at the museum soon brought him recognition as an authority on Arachnida and Myriapoda; he described between 300 and 400 s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Namibia
Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and east. Although Kazungula, it does not border Zimbabwe, less than 200 metres (660 feet) of the Botswanan right bank of the Zambezi, Zambezi River separates the two countries. Namibia gained independence from South Africa on 21 March 1990, following the Namibian War of Independence. Its capital and largest city is Windhoek. Namibia is a member state of the United Nations (UN), the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the African Union (AU) and the Commonwealth of Nations. The driest country in sub-Saharan Africa, Namibia has been inhabited since pre-historic times by the San people, San, Damara people, Damara and Nama people. Around the 14th century, immigration, immigrating Bantu peoples arrived as part of the Bantu expansion. Since ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Heteropodidae
Huntsman spiders, members of the family Sparassidae (formerly Heteropodidae), are known by this name because of their speed and mode of hunting. They are also called giant crab spiders because of their size and appearance. Larger species sometimes are referred to as wood spiders, because of their preference for woody places (forests, mine shafts, woodpiles, wooden shacks). In southern Africa the genus ''Palystes'' are known as rain spiders or lizard-eating spiders. Commonly, they are confused with baboon spiders from the Mygalomorphae infraorder, which are not closely related. More than a thousand Sparassidae species occur in most warm temperate to tropical regions of the world, including much of Australasia, Africa, Asia, the Mediterranean Basin, and the Americas. Several species of huntsman spider can use an unusual form of locomotion. The wheel spider (''Carparachne aureoflava'') from the Namib uses a cartwheeling motion which gives it its name, while ''Cebrennus rechenbe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jumping Spider
Jumping spiders are a group of spiders that constitute the family (biology), family Salticidae. As of 2019, this family contained over 600 described genera and over 6,000 described species, making it the largest family of spiders at 13% of all species. Jumping spiders have some of the best vision among arthropods and use it in courtship, hunting, and navigation. Although they normally move unobtrusively and fairly slowly, most species are capable of very agile jumps, notably when hunting, but sometimes in response to sudden threats or crossing long gaps. Both their book lungs and Invertebrate trachea, tracheal system are well-developed, and they use both systems (bimodal breathing). Jumping spiders are generally recognized by their eye pattern. All jumping spiders have four pairs of eyes, with the Anatomical terms of location, anterior median pair being particularly large. Distinguishing characteristics Jumping spiders are among the easiest to distinguish from similar spider f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nephila Senegalensis
The spider species ''Nephila senegalensis'' is commonly known as the banded-legged golden orb-web spider. The name comes from the fact that the joints of the spider are typically coloured a golden yellow. It is common throughout much of sub-Saharan Africa, from Senegal and Yemen to South Africa. Males are much smaller than females. These spiders Spiders ( order Araneae) are air-breathing arthropods that have eight legs, chelicerae with fangs generally able to inject venom, and spinnerets that extrude silk. They are the largest order of arachnids and rank seventh in total species dive ... are diurnal and weave impressive webs. Subspecies *''Nephila senegalensis annulata'' (Thorell, 1859) *''Nephila senegalensis bragantina'' Brito Capello, 1867 *''Nephila senegalensis hildebrandti'' Dahl, 1912 *''Nephila senegalensis huebneri'' Dahl, 1912 *''Nephila senegalensis keyserlingi'' (Blackwall, 1865) *''Nephila senegalensis nyikae'' Pocock, 1898 *''Nephila senegalensis schweinfurthi' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ground Spider
Ground spiders comprise Gnaphosidae, the seventh largest spider family with over 2,000 described species in over 100 genera distributed worldwide. There are 105 species known to central Europe, and common genera include ''Gnaphosa'', ''Drassodes'', ''Micaria'', ''Cesonia'', ''Zelotes'' and many others. They are closely related to Clubionidae. At present, no ground spiders are known to be seriously venomous to humans. Description Generally, ground spiders are characterized by having barrel-shaped anterior spinnerets that are one spinneret diameter apart. The main exception to this rule is found in the ant-mimicking genus ''Micaria''. Another characteristic is an indentation in the endites (paired mouthparts anterior and lateral to the labium, or lip). All ground spiders lack a prey-capture web and generally run prey down on the surface. They hunt at night and spend the day in a silken retreat. The genitalia are diverse and are a good model for studying the evolution of genitalia b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sac Spider
The sac spiders of the family Clubionidae have a very confusing taxonomic history. Once, this family was a large catch-all taxon for a disparate collection of spiders, similar only in that they had eight eyes arranged in two rows and conical anterior spinnerets that touched, and were wandering predators that built silken retreats, or sacs, usually on plant terminals, between leaves, under bark, or under rocks. These are now recognized to include several families, some of which are more closely related to the three-clawed spiders, like lynx and wolf spiders, than to Clubionidae and related families.Tree of Life Web Project. 2006. Clubionidae. Version 25 March 2006 (temporary). http://tolweb.org/Clubionidae/2675/2006.03.25 in The Tree of Life Web Project, http://tolweb.org/ General The remnant Clubionidae now consist of a few over 500 species in 15 genera worldwide. However, "sac spider" used on its own should imply a member of the family Clubionidae, but other common names may u ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cribellum
Cribellum literally means "little sieve", and in biology the term generally applies to anatomical structures in the form of tiny perforated plates. In certain groups of diatoms it refers to microscopically punctured regions of the frustule, or outer layer. In certain groups of spider species, so-called cribellate spiders, the cribellum is a silk spinning organ. Unlike the usual spinnerets of spiders, the cribellum consists of one or more plates covered in thousands of tiny spigots, tiny holes that hardly project from the surface, in contrast to the elongated spigots that project from spinnerets. These minute spigots produce extremely fine fibers, merely tens of nanometres thick, which are combed out by the spider's calamistrum, producing silk with a woolly texture. The fibers are so small in diameter that they are strongly subject to Van der Waals forces. In addition, the fibres have a surface that absorbs waxes from the epicuticle of insect prey on contact. This creates a po ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spider Wasp
Wasps in the family Pompilidae are commonly called spider wasps, spider-hunting wasps, or pompilid wasps. The family is cosmopolitan, with some 5,000 species in six subfamilies. Nearly all species are solitary (with the exception of some group-nesting Ageniellini), and most capture and paralyze prey, though members of the subfamily Ceropalinae are kleptoparasites of other pompilids, or ectoparasitoids of living spiders. In South America, species may be referred to colloquially as or , though these names can be generally applied to any very large stinging wasps. Furthermore, in some parts of Venezuela and Colombia, it is called , or "horse killers", while in Brazil some particular bigger and brighter species of the general kind might be called /, or "throat locker". Morphology Like other strong fliers, pompilids have a thorax modified for efficient flight. The metathorax is solidly fused to the pronotum and mesothorax; moreover, the prothorax is best developed in Pompilidae a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Crimson-breasted Shrike (Laniarius Atrococcineus) Feeding On The Nest Of Colonial Spiders (Stegodyphus Dumicola) (7003063101)
The crimson-breasted shrike (''Laniarius atrococcineus'') or the crimson-breasted gonolek, ('gonolek' - supposedly imitative of its call), or the crimson-breasted boubou, is a southern African bird. It has black upper parts with a white flash on the wing, and bright scarlet underparts. The International Union for Conservation of Nature has rated it as a " least-concern species". Taxonomy The species was first collected by William John Burchell in 1811 near the confluence of the Vaal and Orange Rivers. He named it ''atrococcineus'' meaning 'black/red', finding the striking colour combination quite remarkable. The generic name ''Laniarius'' was coined by the French ornithologist Louis Jean Pierre Vieillot and was meant to call attention to the butcher-like habits of the group. In South West Africa its colours reminded Germans of their homeland flag and it therefore became the ''Reichsvogel'' ("Empire bird"). The species is closely related to two other bushshrikes, the yellow-cr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stegodyphus Sarasinorum
''Stegodyphus sarasinorum,'' also known as the Indian cooperative spider, is a species of velvet spider of the family Eresidae. It is native to India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, and Myanmar. This spider is a social spider that exhibits communal predation and feeding, where individuals live in large cooperatively built colonies with a nest or retreat constructed of silk woven using leaves, twigs, and food carcasses, and a sheet web for prey capture. Individual ''S. sarasinorum'' spiders that have attacked prey once are more likely to attack prey again, independent of their body size or hunger level. This is the only member of the family Eresidae that is arboreal, not terrestrial. Description ''Stegodyphus sarasinorum'', like most Eresids, are short, stout spiders lined with several fine hairs. These fine hairs give the spiders an ash-colored appearance. The dorsal side of the abdomen is marked with three longitudinal white stripes and six pairs of dots, which are part of the spider's patte ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
