Autumn concerns of insects. Entertaining zoology

There are several hundred species of tarantulas. These fluffy beauties can live in trees and crawl on the ground, and they do this in Asia, Africa or the warm part of America. And as often happens in the animal world, the name of these spiders has nothing to do with their everyday life— they don’t actually eat any birds. Of course, if suddenly some careless chick gets in the way giant spider- he won’t make a mistake. However, it is not birds of the air that are the main food of tarantulas - they are increasingly insectivorous. In other words, a cockroach (not a domestic one!) or a cricket is exactly what a tarantula needs. However, a frog or a mouse will do for him, and the tarantula living in the house has never refused just a piece of meat.

If you look at tarantulas without prejudice, it becomes obvious that they are beautiful. Huge (leg span up to 25 centimeters), bright, fluffy, they look like exotic flowers, but these flowers have character. Moreover, this character is largely determined by the place of origin of one or another species of tarantula. For some reason, Asian and African spiders are much angrier than their American relatives, so experts advise inexperienced spider holders to begin their friendship with arachnids with American spiders. For example, with representatives of the genus Brachypelma - these guys, living in Mexico, Costa Rica and Honduras, are distinguished by a particularly sweet and friendly disposition.

Spiders are poisonous creatures. However, not as much as the legends say - the bite of a brachypelma tarantula is no more dangerous for humans than, for example, a bee sting. And the more poisonous breeds of tarantulas are also not fatal, but this is not a reason to rejoice because your favorite spider has bitten you again. Moreover, besides the poison, he has something to please us with - the teeth (that is, these, of course, are not teeth at all, but if something looks like a fang, then why don’t we consider it a fang?) in an adult tarantula can reach a centimeter length. As for the burning capabilities, there is a special bristle on the abdomen of tarantulas, which the spider can shake off on its enemy - this is also not fatal, but very unpleasant, and for allergy sufferers it is threefold unpleasant. So, brachypelmas can bite and burn with bristles, but they don’t want to - they save their weapons for the most extreme cases.

The global fashion for spiders began in the 80s of the last century - and very soon the first tarantulas began to arrive in our country. Then they were smuggled and asked for absolutely crazy money for them - 200-300 dollars (and at that time, if someone doesn’t remember, the dollar was not at all the same as it is now). Now Russia has its own population of tarantulas, and the price for them has become much more modest - a good female costs about two thousand rubles. Males are cheaper. But who needs these males? A male spider is a short-lived creature: having reached sexual maturity, it will last for best case scenario about five years (that is, if they don’t eat him). But a brachypelma girl can live peacefully even for 30 years. If, of course, she eats in moderation. Tarantulas living in the wild do not eat every day. And not even every week. Moreover, it happens that not even every month: an adult spider can live without food at all for a whole year, and only become a little thinner. However, the loving owner of a spider is not always able to keep his little one on such a strict diet - but of course, he looks so pitifully with all his eight eyes, so touchingly wiggles his furry legs, probably hungry! And the loving owner of the spider fills the tarantula with crickets, frogs, pieces of chicken and lean meat, and even tries to treat it with vegetables and fruits to prevent vitamin deficiency. Well, the tarantula spits on any cabbage and carrots from a high bell tower - he is ready to bite off a piece of some berry only if for some reason he was not given water (in a bowl) and he suffers greatly from thirst. But a normal tarantula will not refuse tasty food. And the more he eats, the faster he grows. The faster it grows, the more often it sheds. And the more often a spider molts, the shorter its eyelids. In a word, Plisetskaya’s golden words “Don’t eat!” relate to spiders even more than to ballerinas.

Molting is an unpleasant process for a tarantula: at this time, spiders feel defenseless, so they prefer to change their skin in secluded places. The only thing an anxious owner can do to help a tarantula is precisely that: do not feed the spider, do not grab it, and generally leave it alone. But then, when he sheds his hair, his discarded clothes look exactly like full-fledged spider, you can put it in a frame and hang it on the wall - it will turn out very elegant, and not a single tarantula will be harmed.

Tarantulas are proud loners, so it’s not worth planting several of them in one terrarium. In addition, meek brachypelmas have a bad habit of quickly eating their gentleman after sex. According to experts, it is the representatives of especially kind varieties of tarantulas who try to have dinner with their partners - and their aggressive relatives, on the contrary, often treat their husbands kindly and even sometimes live with them. By the way, if anyone thinks that all spiders are the same, then here is a refutation: two absolutely similar males behave completely differently after an act of love. One, the smart one, having done his job, immediately takes to his heels, while the other complacently lounges next to the dangerous lady and immediately becomes her lunch. Moreover, the female does such horrors not at all out of malice and not because the male did not please her in some way - she simply believes that if no one needs food that no one needs, then why should the good thing disappear next to the future mother of many children?

Well, how do tarantulas treat their owners? Yes, they don’t relate at all - we will never expect any love, devotion, or obedience from them. True, some spider fanatics claim that their precious tarantula not only knows the owner by sight, but also highly values ​​all kinds of affection and hugs. In fact, spiders just love warmth, and therefore they really enjoy sitting in a person’s palm or even crawling under a shirt, but there’s nothing personal about it. However, not every one of us is ready to put up with such indifference, and among the owners of tarantulas there are crazy people who not only eat with their pets from the same plate and sleep on the same pillow, but also drag them with them everywhere. Does the tarantula enjoy being put in your pocket and carried to work every morning? Doubtful. But such adventures can damage his health. And this despite the fact that, in general, you still have to try very hard to kill a tarantula spider: their health is excellent, and in order to harm it, the spider must either never be given water, or frozen, or dropped. Yes, it’s all kinds of falls for small house spiders - like water off a duck’s back, but a large and heavy tarantula may well break. So, where can you find a veterinarian willing to cure a sick spider?

Well, in general there is not the slightest fuss with the spider. The tarantula sits quietly in its terrarium all day long and stares at something visible only to it. Sometimes he is attacked by economic activity, and then he begins to clean his house: cleans the bedding (coconut substrate), throws out leftover food, digs if there is something to dig, or inspects the terrarium environment (pieces of coconut shells, pots, or what have you). invented so that the tarantula would have some kind of shelter and always know that he has a roof over his head).

Many of us are in doubt - can spiders go to the toilet? Yes, nothing human is alien to them, but they do this very rarely and in the same place, so you can clean the terrarium with them once every few months. And we are also very worried about the question: do spiders sleep? They may be sleeping, but they don’t close their eyes.

Tarantulas know how to make webs, but they need them to make soft bedding for themselves or to wrap excess prey in it. They do not weave trapping nets from cobwebs - tarantulas catch prey with their paws and do it so quickly and deftly that you don’t even have time to blink an eye. Yes, tarantulas cannot rush through mountains and forests for a long time, but making a rapid forced march of a meter is within their sprinting capabilities.

In a word, there is no need to be afraid of spiders - they are very cute and unusually beautiful, as you can see for yourself by checking out the website www.tarantulas.ru. And remember the main thing: spiders are not insects at all! The spider, of course, doesn’t give a damn - but its owner may be offended by the insect.

10. Spiders are insects.
Scientists classify these creatures as arthropods, which belong to the order of arachnids. Spiders can be distinguished from insects even by eye:
Animals have two pairs of legs or four limbs. And the spider also has four of them. Four pairs. Insects normally have three pairs of legs or limbs.
The front part of the body is also different: in insects the movable head is separated from the chest; in arachnids there is not even any semblance of a “neck”; the head is combined with the chest into one part of the body, which is called the cephalothorax.
Insects have two eyes with a complex structure, spiders have much more primitive eyes, but there are eight of them. There are spiders with six eyes and rarely with two.
Insects are carnivores and vegetarians, and almost all spiders are predators.

9. All spiders weave webs.
If you ask a person to describe the life of a spider, he will most likely say that this creature weaves webs and eats flies. But not all spiders do this. Many of the spiders are wandering predators like tigers or wolves of the arthropod world. For example, wolf spiders (yes, they exist). Having overtaken the prey, they jump onto the victim and, holding it with their front paws, begin to eat it without prelude in the form of openwork weaving.


8. Spiders only weave round webs.
Spiders are more creative creatures than they seem. And if we are accustomed to round (concentric) webs, this does not mean that spiders are limited to them.

7. In winter, spiders hide from the cold in houses.
This idea is very logical: birds fly south, bears hibernate, spiders also somehow escape. But in fact, most of the spiders that live in our homes are “descendants” of house spiders, which have lived in houses for many generations and were able to adapt to life in a temperate climate and a meager amount of food and water. House spiders have become so adaptable that they have learned to lay eggs in furniture. So migration is not spider style.


6. If you find a spider at home, release it.
Less than 5 percent of house spiders have ever been outside the home. They are even less adapted to life on the street, where there is a constant change in temperature and conditions, not to mention a completely new world of predators. Therefore, release the spider into a new one wild world- this is not the most best idea, unless you want to get rid of the annoying creature. It is also worth remembering that a person's right to real estate means nothing to other species. Therefore, it is better to leave the spider to live in his (or your) house, be human.

5. Spiders don'tThey can get caught in their own web.
No, spiders are not immune to their own stickiness. They simply move along their webs very carefully so as not to get stuck. It turns out that not all webs are sticky. Some spiders make their webs with small drops of glue scattered throughout them to prevent them from stepping on them themselves. If they step on one, it won't matter of great importance, as it usually takes several to get them firmly stuck. So when a fly gets caught in a web, there's a good chance it'll land on more than one of those glue droplets. Other spiders weave webs so that only the circular threads are sticky, and the ray threads are not, so that they can move along them.


4. A tarantula bite is fatal.
Tarantula venom is lethal, but only to some animals. For a person, it is nothing more than a simple hornet sting. Swelling appears, but it is not fatal.


3. Spiders are aggressive.
In fact, spiders bite much less often than many people think. They have a self-preservation instinct, and when danger arises, the spider tries to run away and hide. Even the black widow, whose bite is relatively dangerous to humans, is unlikely to touch you unless, of course, you provoke it.

2. A person swallows eight spiders in a dream per year.
Even when house spiders are looking for food, they try not to get in the way of a person. And there is usually little food near the sleeping person.
Another reason why a person simply cannot swallow a spider in a dream is snoring. If we assume that a person does eat spiders in a dream, he will probably
She usually sleeps with her mouth open, which means she snores. Spiders are shy animals, and the sharp sound of snoring will clearly scare them away.


1. Spiders are always nearby (within a meter radius).
It all depends on where you are. If you are in the park having a picnic, then most likely this is the case. But if you're in an airplane cabin or on the top floor of a skyscraper, the nearest spider could be a kilometer away.
The myth began when archaeologist Norman Platnick began his 1995 paper by saying, “wherever you are sitting reading this, a spider is probably no more than a few feet away.” People took this as a fact when in fact he was just speculating. Over time, a few meters grew into a meter, and the word “probably” was dropped altogether. By 2001, books were citing this myth as fact.
I wonder if spiders have misconceptions about people?

Sleep is an integral part of our life, critically important for the body. We know for sure that humans and animals need sleep. But when our gaze falls on a fly buzzing on the window glass, we are no longer so sure and often ask ourselves the question “Are insects sleeping or not?”

Yes, insects need to sleep too! The main culprit behind sleep in insects is the presence of a central nervous system. Of course, this does not mean that a housefly, which had previously been flying all over the house, will suddenly lie down on its side and fall asleep for six hours. Her sleep will look a little different: for some time the insect will simply sit motionless on the table, wall or even on the ceiling. And you won’t even think that the little bug is sleeping at this time.

The fact is that every living creature sleeps differently: a person, for example, can only sleep lying down, giraffes and elephants sleep standing up, and bats generally sleep upside down. In addition, the duration of sleep for all living creatures is completely different: the same giraffe sleeps only 2 hours a day, and bat- all 20. In insects, the duration of sleep also varies - from a few minutes to several hours, while the same fly can sleep even on a wall or ceiling. But there is something that unites the sleep of all living beings - it is a slow reaction to external stimuli.

If scientists have the opportunity to connect sensors to a large animal or person brain activity and determine when a creature is sleeping, then in the case of insects, all that remains is to monitor their behavior and reaction to external influences. This is how two independent groups of scientists from the Institute of Neuroscience in California and the University of Pennsylvania proved that insects can sleep too.

The experiment was carried out on fruit flies and consisted of constantly shaking one container with insects during the night, preventing the flies from sitting still. The other container was not exposed and the insects continued their normal activities. After a sleepless night, the scientists finally left the first container alone, and the flies inside immediately and simultaneously decreased their activity. At the same time, when shaking the jar, the insects did not react immediately, but with some delay - as if you shake a sleeping person by the shoulder, he will not wake up immediately.

The left container has been exposed to external influence— it was shaken regularly, not allowing the flies to rest.

These results were obtained in two independent studies and were repeated many times to exclude the possibility of coincidence. Moreover, upon detailed study, experts noticed that the duration of sleep in flies depends on age: young individuals sleep less than older ones. Just for fun, the scientists even sprayed caffeine into the container and were surprised to find that it had the same effect on fruit flies as it does on humans, making them stay awake longer.

This is how bees sleep. According to the author of the video, this bee Anthidium punctatum remained motionless (sleeping) for a long time, clasping a blade of grass with its jaws.

Further similar experiments were carried out not only on fruit flies, but also on other insects (for example, bees), and all of them confirmed that insects can sleep.

Photographer Miroslaw Swietek took these unique photographs of insects in the morning hours. At this time, insects are covered with morning dew, but are asleep, so they can be easily photographed by bringing the camera lens as close as possible. However, according to Miroslav, it is incredibly difficult to find their wet grass.

Most spiders have a lifespan of less than one year. At cold weather spiders usually die because they cannot live in such a climate. However, some types of insects can survive even winter time. Thus, most spiders hibernate during the winter. But there are also exceptions.

Such exceptions include South Russian tarantula. This type of winter spider crawls into its burrow and clogs the entrance with earth. The spider crawls out of its home only when it wants to eat. If the South Russian tarantula gets into a warm room next to a person’s home, then it can lead a normal life all winter. But this behavior is typical only for the South Russian tarantula. All other spiders that endure winter climb into their burrows at this time and fall asleep until the onset of warm seasons.

What do spiders eat in the winter?

The South Russian tarantula, silver spider and Eresus cinnaberinus do not fall into hibernation. The South Russian tarantula can lead an active lifestyle in winter, being in a warm room near human habitation. In these places there are enough insects necessary to feed the South Russian tarantula.

Wintering of silver spiders is a very interesting phenomenon. For the winter, these spiders make cocoons underwater, into which they hibernate. Sometimes they overwinter in empty mollusk shells. Having found such a shell, the spider forces air into it until it floats to the surface. The shell is attached by spider threads to aquatic plants (duckweed) floating on the surface. The spider hides in the shell and closes its opening with plant debris held together by cobwebs.

Where do spiders come from in apartments in winter?

Spiders often appear in an apartment or house in winter. People wonder where spiders can come from in winter if they all hibernate at this time. There are many options for where spiders come from at this time. One of the most important options is normal conditions for spiders to live in.

The second option is that cocoons with spider eggs can remain in any crack, in the floor or under a chair. Spider children emerge from this cocoon. This can happen after renovation or general cleaning. These spiders can crawl all over the room. They can be easily destroyed using conventional disinfestation sprays, such as dichlorvos. In addition to this, all cobwebs should be removed from the house and burned. It is also worth sealing the cracks in the baseboard with silicone. You should also use insect repellent chalk to deprive spiders of food.

Spiders belong to the class of arthropods.

The spider is an animal that is the most famous predator that hunts its victims using traps. He uses webs as a means of trap.
The spider squad includes big number species. These animals are distributed throughout the world. Spiders hunt mainly on insects.

Cross

Builds the most beautiful and correct shaped network cross spider(pictured on the right).
This spider got its name because of the light spots that are located on the upper side of its abdomen, in the form of a cross. The same spots, which stand out brightly against a dark brown background in many other places, form light stripes or circles.
Common cross found throughout Europe and lives in gardens, bushes and forests, usually at a height of 30 to 150 cm from the ground surface.

For his habitat, in most cases he chooses a place in ravines, near swamps, lakes or near rivers, in general, in damp places, since there are a lot of flies and mosquitoes, which he feasts on.
The method of catching this spider is that the spider sits, hiding, near the spread out net and patiently waits for some mosquito or fly to become entangled in its trap. He pulls his trap between two neighboring trees or branches.
At the same time, he is guided not so much by sight or hearing, but by touch, since the caught prey, trying to escape, produces a large shaking in the network, and the spider itself, being in ambush, comes into contact with its legs or tentacles with several threads extended to it from different ends snare.
As soon as a shock occurs, it is transmitted through these threads to the spider, like current through wires. Then the crossman emerges from ambush, approaches the victim, makes the final leap on him and kills him with his deadly, poisonous bite.
After which he can behave differently; if he is hungry, he immediately eats the victim. Often the cross spider simply entangles it in its web and leaves the victim to eat it another time. Sometimes he drags her away and eats her in another place.
It’s interesting that if an inedible animal gets caught in its web, for example poisonous wasp, he lets her go himself, breaking the net.

Tarantula

Stands out for its size spider tarantula(tarantula). Their body reaches 5 cm in length, and together with their shaggy legs, elongated in length, they reach 18 cm. These giant tropical tarantula spiders usually do not weave webs, but there are one or two species that set net traps. These nets usually support a load weighing up to 300 grams, and they catch not only insects, but also frogs, small lizards and birds. These spiders are very common in Australia and sometimes enter people's homes and gardens. They can reach lengths of more than 6 cm. From them poisonous bite A dog may die, but not a person. There is an opinion that their blood contains protection against poison and that when a tarantula bites, the place where the bite was made should be rubbed with this crushed spider.
Spiders are very common all over the world and especially here in Russia. It is popularly believed that the spider cannot be killed and that it brings mail to people.

Below you see photographs of a spider living in the Moscow region.

Spider with a pattern

In the late autumn of 1794, the French went to war against the Dutch, but the Dutch, who, as you know, live below sea level, opened the floodgates and flooded all the fields and roads with water. The French could neither pass nor pass. They were about to turn back, but then they told their chief general to wait: “The spider predicts frost.” He waited, and in fact, ten days later the weather became clear and frosty, and the French walked on the ice, like on parquet, to Amsterdam.

The belief in a forecasting bureau that lives on the web is very old: Pliny wrote about it almost two thousand years ago.

Popular superstitions say this: if a spider sits in the center of a cobweb circle or starts weaving immediately after the rain has stopped, and the web is weaving a large one on long threads, the weather is good.

If forest spiders have laid new small webs on short threads, and house spiders have moved from external to internal walls - wait bad weather, with rain and wind. If there are a lot of silvers flying over the fields spider threads– clear and warm days are ahead again.

Some biologists think that perhaps the spider senses vibrations atmospheric pressure and, obeying instinct, behaves accordingly. The pressure rises, in clear weather - the spider is weaving a hunting web. When the pressure drops before the rain, he does not waste his energy on the spider web that is unnecessary in the rain. Having noticed these spider habits, one can allegedly use them to predict the weather.

Others do not believe in such predictions. No one, they say, has yet verified these spider predictions using precise scientific methods.

One way or another, the almost universal belief in fortune-telling spiders has served the small eight-legged creatures well. Wherever this is believed, spiders are protected for fear that the damage caused by them will spoil the weather.

It is said that the spider generally brings good luck or good news. Players and those people who often have to tempt fate and who share this belief in the “spider of luck” simply revere spiders, harboring feelings of mystical fear and respect for them. “For luck,” they wear spiders in various boxes or medallions, or replace these talismans with a tattoo depicting a spider.

It is said about one gambler in Monte Carlo that he received qualified advice on what color to bet on from his spider friend. He sat importantly in a box with a glass lid. The box is half red, half black. The spider crawled onto black or red if you shook it, and the player bet money on that color.

In Egypt, the custom of letting people in for luck is still alive in some places. big spider...to the newlyweds in bed.

Many musicians found grateful listeners in spiders. As soon as you play a few notes on the violin, the spider is right there: sitting and listening. Many stories have been written about the love of spiders for music.

But undoubtedly, this love is very selfish: it is not the music itself that attracts spiders, but the resonant shaking of the web, and then they, the spiders, imagine that it is a fly caught in the web that is shaking it.

Thieves and heroes, as legends and newspapers say, spiders have more than once saved from the police and enemies.

These stories are mostly old: a spider wove a web into the entrance to the cave in which Mohammed hid from his evil enemies, and they did not enter it, deciding that there was no one there, since the web at the entrance was not torn. Since then, the great sin of the Mohammedans is to kill a spider.

And even earlier, the spider supposedly saved David from Saul in the same way. This legend travels widely around the world.

In Bulgaria and England, until recently, there was an oral tradition: a spider also saved Christ himself from Herod. (But Christians, alas, with black ingratitude repay the spider for a good deed when they assure, for some unknown reason, that forty sins will be forgiven to the one who kills the spider.) In Italy, St. Felix, the Japanese hero Yoritomo, like Mohammed, was saved by a spider...

But perhaps the spider has never rendered such an important service to any people as it once did to the Scots.

Robert the Bruce, the hero of Scotland, suffered one setback after another in many bloody battles with the English: the strength of the Scottish rebels was too small (although the cause was just: they fought for freedom). Seven times in a row, the legend says, the British defeated him in battle. While wandering in the mountains, Robert the Bruce wandered into a cave. He had completely lost heart, all his hopes and strength were shattered. In the corner of the cave, a spider was weaving a web. Robert the Bruce, angry at everyone, tore it down. And not an hour had passed, and the spider began to work again in the same corner. Bruce again ruined all his work - he looks, and he weaves again, calmly and busily. Seven times Bruce destroyed what the spider had done, but the spider worked with the same energy on the ruins of his web, weaving everything again.

And then the hero was ashamed: the little “bug” is so stubborn and fearless in her deeds, and we, people, lost heart from several defeats! That won't happen! Bruce came out of the cave, full of courage, gathered his people and, in a new battle at Bannockburn in 1314, completely defeated the British.

How many spiders Arctosa fulvolineata Can you stay underwater without drowning? To find out, Julien Pétillon from the University of Rennes dipped the arthropods into water, waited until they stopped showing signs of life, and pulled them out of the vessel onto land. However, a little later, the entomologist discovered that the seemingly dead spiders began to come to their senses.

A. fulvolineata are known for being able to withstand immersion in water quite well. Therefore, Julien was not very surprised that it took almost a day to wait for the “death” of the spiders. Apparently, in order to conduct further research, the scientist decided to dry out the unfortunate experimental subjects. Imagine his surprise when, one after another, the arthropods gradually returned to life. It was as if they had been in a coma before.

“We didn’t expect that spiders could go into this state,” explains Pétillon.

As a result of further research, it turned out that some representatives A. fulvolineata They calmly survive even a 40-hour stay in water.

Julien and his colleagues explain what is happening this way: in the absence of oxygen, spiders switch their metabolism from aerobic to anaerobic (oxygen-free) mode.

On average, all individuals were able to survive without air for about 16 hours. Scientists believe this is due to lifestyle A. fulvolineata(after all, their forest brothers are Pardosa purbeckensis did not last even part of this time).

“Many species of spiders live in places where they have to dive underwater from time to time. In most cases of flooding, arthropods simply climb up the available plants, but we have never seen spiders manage to “endure” under water for so long,” says Pétillon.

We are, of course, not talking about those arthropods that are able to drag air with them under water (for some it lingers on the shell, others weave special scuba nets).

The period of 16 hours may be due to the fact that in the salt marshes of northwestern France (in the area where they live A. fulvolineata) tides rarely last more than eight hours.

And it is even more unlikely that the spiders will wait for two such arrivals of high water.

There is an opinion that spiders developed their ability to weave webs specifically for protection from the water elements. By making a waterproof “door” for their home, they could easily wait out floods or long rains. A. fulvolineata indirectly confirm this theory. They almost never create silk threads, and with their incredible endurance they don’t really need it.

Read also about a creature that can distinguish odors underwater.

The biggest threat to spiders is the spiders themselves. There are spiders that catch other spiders.

In difficult times, when food is scarce, it becomes difficult for spiders to resist eating someone from their family. Most famous spider in our house it is the long-legged spider Pholcus phalangoides. He is dangerous enemy spiders In the spring, this spider is the only one that lives in our houses. All other insects and spiders are exterminated by it during the winter. In case of hunger strike, they even kill their offspring.

There are also killer spiders in the families Mimetidae and Ero. Ero attacks the spider sharply, on one of the spider's legs. He then retreats and waits at a safe distance until the bitten spider dies. Then he returns to suck every last drop out of the spider.

We humans have a bad habit of disturbing the life of the natural world for our own selfish purposes. At the same time, we are destroying many spider habitats. When using insecticides in agriculture Entire populations of insects and spiders are destroyed. Very a large number of spiders are listed in the Red Book and are currently on the verge of extinction. Nowadays it is very rare to find tarantulas in South America, because they were caught and sold as pets.

Stop and think:

"Should you kill spiders just because they look disgusting?"

Daily and annual cycle of spiders

Waltz with a Cricket

Tarantula spiders of all sizes and ages always perform a certain dance while eating. The authors of this book once witnessed how a spider of the species Avicularia avicularia performed this dance on an almost vertical wall, and Theraphosa blondi did this with a teenage mouse that it had just killed. It very rarely happens that spiders do not perform this dance; almost every individual from the authors’ collection performs it while eating.

As soon as the tarantula grabs a cricket (or other food), it immediately rises on its legs, lowers its web-like appendages and begins to “lay” pieces of web with them. During its lunch, the spider rotates, continuing to weave a web. After some time, all the food (for example, a dozen crickets for a medium-sized spider, or a teenage mouse for the species Theraphosa blondi) will be located in the center of this litter and lightly covered with a layer of cobwebs. After a few minutes, probably for better digestion, the spider will again begin to work on everything that it has created: the web, the digested food, even the bedding, and will again begin to circle and weave, creating a new web. The book's authors call it a mealtime waltz. If Johann Strauss had known this fact, would he have written a waltz in honor of it?

Hypothetically, this behavior can be explained as one of the adaptations in response to lack of food in wildlife. Since most tarantulas do not leave their burrows and do not go hunting, devoting most time to relax at " front door”, and expecting that someone tender and juicy will pass nearby, it is natural that they do not have any pattern in nutrition. And if a swarm of locusts or a pair of dung beetles appears, then this means unexpected wealth in the form of abundant food. One of the abilities of some arachnids is the ability to grab and hold a victim, and not allow what is left of it to disappear. Other spiders have a more developed ability to hold onto prey and eat it almost immediately.

Spiders living in conditions where there is more or less abundant food have developed the first strategy. An example of this is spiders that weave balls from their webs (Argiope species). If several insects get into the web at the same time, then these spiders deal with each of them individually. They rarely move on to a second insect until they are convinced that the first one is not going anywhere. When there is such confidence, each insect is eaten in turn.

Tarantula spiders adhere to the second strategy. They're taking over maximum amount victims and eat them as quickly as possible. Instead of eating each victim in turn, all the insects roll up and intertwine into one lump until the food begins to scatter and the tarantula can no longer cope with it.

Then all the prey begins to be eaten at the same time. This simultaneous consumption of all captured prey is a sign of situational behavior caused by irregular access to food and frequent hunger.

Daily cycle

Only a few details of the daily routine of tarantula spiders are known. They are more active in the evening than during the daytime. Light appears to be the most significant factor influencing their activity. Minch (1977) also suggested that important role surface temperature also plays a role; Possible interference in their lives by other animals is also important.

During the daytime, individuals living in deserts can climb into their burrows and escape there from light, heat and drought. As dusk approaches, they become more active, gradually moving towards the exit of the burrow. Finally, when darkness falls, if they have woven a veil of cobwebs at the entrance to the burrow, they break through it with the help of their front and side legs, moving it to the sides. Then they lie in ambush and wait for a victim passing by. If a spider detects vibrations in the soil caused by large animals, it hides in a hole for a while. Then he can return again to the entrance to his shelter. If he spots small prey, then he attacks it and drags his future dinner home. At night, the spider can expand its hole or simply lie at its entrance and wait for its next prey. When morning comes, spiders usually climb deep into the hole. At the same time, they do not weave a web. After the sun has risen high enough and early morning has arrived, they return to the entrance to the burrow and begin to weave a web. Then they retire to their chambers for the entire daylight period.

If the day is cloudy, the tarantula spider can be seen crawling out of its hole during the day, although they rarely move more than fifteen to twenty centimeters from it. They often leave strands of web behind them in order to find their way home (Minch 1978). Breene (1996) reports that the species Aphonopelma anax, native to South Texas, can be found primarily only at the entrance of a burrow, and they retreat only if they see an approaching animal or feel a strong vibration caused, for example, by human footsteps or large animal.

Minch (1978 and 1979) noted one interesting feature in the behavior of wild tarantulas. During heavy rain, spiders of the species Aphonopelma chalcodes block the entrance to the burrow with their body, thus preventing it from flooding. What other little tricks can tarantula spiders resort to? Do tarantulas sleep during the day? We could answer this question if we knew what sleep is. And even taking into account the fact that they nervous system differs most radically from ours, we perhaps cannot say whether they experience something similar to sleep.

Annual cycle

In nature, tarantulas are subject to a variety of seasonal influences that form their basic annual rhythm, or annual cycle. Such influences include daylight hours, light intensity, temperature, humidity, availability and accessibility of food, etc.

Breene (1996) reports that spiders in southern Texas do not burrow during some months of the year. And the authors of this book once discovered a dug hole of the species Aphonopelma moderatum in the valley upstream Rio Grande River at the end of December!

However, with the approach of autumn in areas with temperate climate(for example, in Arkansas or at an altitude of 1350 m in Pima County in Arizona), tarantulas can actively plug their burrows with soil and webs. Sometimes fragments of foliage can also be used in this capacity. Tarantulas can do this several times as the seasons change. In the end, such a plug remains in the hole throughout the winter until the onset of spring. What do tarantulas do the entire time they remain locked in a hole? The answer may be simple - they are waiting. But we don't really know. No one has ever reported this before.

As spring approaches, tarantulas become more active and remove the plug from the hole, if there is one. If the spider is a mature female, she is fertilized by the male and makes a large clutch of eggs, placing them in the burrow. As soon as the spiders emerge from the eggs, they leave their shelter, and the female begins molting (approximately in mid-summer).

Juveniles and adult unfertilized females moult in early spring. Remaining warm months they are active, digging their burrows and waiting for prey at its entrance. In mid-spring, adult males spin sperm webs and search for females. Many are killed by predators. As winter approaches, older males begin to die of old age, when encountering predators or as a result of changing weather conditions.

Breene (1996) called this cycle the “autumn mating strategy.” However, Breene notes that the seasonal cycle of the Anax species in southern Texas has a slightly different structure - the so-called “spring mating strategy.” In this case, males reach sexual maturity in the spring and mate with females in May-June. Females lay eggs in late June - early July, and molt occurs in late August or early September.

Tarantulas living in tropical latitudes are not susceptible to seasonal temperature changes to the same extent. In arid areas, rain and humidity are thought to play a critical role in the tarantula's annual cycle, determining the timing of molting and egg laying. There is an assumption that young spiders are born when food and moisture are most abundant, that is, in the period following the rainy season. However, there is no direct evidence of this. These creatures have a habit of immediately leading us into a dead end as soon as we try to draw any analogies between them and other animals more familiar to us. We can only wait for some student who is fascinated by spiders, who will sit in the steppe or bushes for a couple of years, calmly watching these mysterious creatures, and confirm or refute our conclusions.

IN tropical forests, where the climate is warm and humid throughout the year, where seasonal changes are not so sharp and sensitive, the annual cycles of tarantulas are blurred or do not exist at all.

Arachnologists, amateurs or professionals, have still not been able to determine the structure of the annual habits of most species of tarantulas, and it is unknown what factors are decisive for the formation of their own annual cycle for each species.