The Spinybacked Orbweaver (Gasteracantha Cancriformis) Is A Small Species Of Spider Found Throughout

The spinybacked orbweaver (Gasteracantha cancriformis) is a small species of spider found throughout South America, Central America, the Caribbean islands, and the southern part of North America. They can reside in a variety of habitats, but their main home is in woodlands and dense brush. They are mainly solitary, but will sometimes coexist with other colonial orbweaver spiders.

G. cancriformis is notable for its striking appearance. The head and thorax are small and , while the thorax is quite large and lined with six sharp spines. The coloration can vary throughout the spider's distribution; generally the head and thorax are black, while the abdomen can be white, black, orange, yellow, or even blue, and the spines can be red or black. Females tend to be between 5–9 mm (0.20–0.35 in) long, while males are much smaller at only 2 to 3 mm (0.1 in) long.

As an orbweaver, spinybacked orbweavers build large webs to catch their prey-- mainly small insects. Every evening, a female builds a new web and a male hangs by a single thread close by. The following morning, after consuming any insects she has caught, the female will either take down or eat the web so that a new one can be constructed the following evening. Depending on the size of her prey, she may either paralyze it with a mild venom or wrap it in webbing before consumption. There are few known predators of adult spinybacked orbweavers, due to their small size and prickly defense, but the eggs are known to be parasitized by wasps.

Spiny orbweavers only live for one year, and only mate once during that period. In the spring, males court females first by drumming on her web. If she does not become aggressive, he approaches and allows her to strap him down with silk. Following copulation, the female lays an egg sac with 100 to 260 eggs on the underside of a nearby leaf, and then dies. The male typically dies several days later; it is unknown whether he mates with other females during this period. Incubation takes 2-5 weeks, and the young mature quickly over the summer.

Conservation status: The IUCN has not evaluated the spinybacked orbweaver. However, the species has a large, widespread population, and is highly adaptable to living in urban areas, and so is generally considered stable.

Photos

Scott Nelson

Judy Gallagher

Kimberlie Sasan

More Posts from Taiisdelusional and Others

taiisdelusional

1 year ago

:3 feels happier than :) But not as genuine as :]

100K notes View Post

taiisdelusional

2 years ago

The hard truth about autism acceptance that a lot of people don't want to hear is that autism acceptance also inherently requires acceptance of people who are just weird.

And yes, I mean Those TM people. Middle schoolers who growl and bark and naruto run in the halls. Thirtysomethings who live with their parents. Furries. Fourteen-year-olds who identify as stargender and use neopronouns. Picky eaters. Adults in fandoms. People who talk weird. People who dress weird.

Because autistic people shouldn't have to disclose a medical diagnosis to you to avoid being mocked and ostracized for stuff that, at absolute worst, is annoying. Ruthlessly deriding people for this stuff then tacking on a "oh, but it's okay if they're autistic" does absolutely nothing to help autistic people! Especially when undiagnosed autistic people exist.

Like it or not, if you want to be an ally to autistic people, you're going to have to take the L and leave eccentric, weird people alone. Even if you don't know them to be autistic. You shouldn't be looking for Acceptable Reasons to be mean to people in the first place. Being respectful should be the default.

180K notes View Post

taiisdelusional

1 year ago

Last night I cried myself to sleep, because it ached. To be alive.

- Suvrahadip Ghosh, The Ache Called Life

221 notes View Post

taiisdelusional

3 years ago

oh, to be a dutch resident armed with rotten eggs,

84K notes View Post

taiisdelusional

1 year ago

you know how some people go to parties and befriend the pets there like the dogs & cats? whenever i go to social functions i somehow end up randomly in charge of children. i don’t know how it happens. people are always just foisting children off on me in public places.

and the thing is it never stops at one child, because once you have one with you, another child approaches, and then parents start to think you’re perhaps some sort of hired childcare at the function and they don’t ask you. more children appear whose parents pointed at you and the other children and said, “oh look! that’s where all the kids are! go over there!”

I was at a work picnic once and a man from another department asked me to hold his 5-month-old while he filled up his plate. Then he got distracted talking to friends and didn’t come back for thirty minutes. I stood there with this baby whose name I actually didn’t know, chit-chatting a meeting new colleagues, and everyone assumed it was my baby and kept asking about him and what was I supposed to do? Say, “oh this isn’t mine” ?? Because then they’d ask whose it was and we actually hadn’t exchanged names. So then what would I say, “I don’t know” ??????????

I started wondering if I needed to make up a fake backstory for this baby.

The baby’s MOM eventually showed up looking for her husband, saw me, and said, far more pleasantly than she needed to, “hi! You seem to have my baby????”

I was just like, “indeed. so I do.”

I once volunteered to run the bubble table at a local festival. The point was to come get bubble wands & soap to use around the festival, but people just started sending their children over en masse. The festival ended, and I still had like 17 unattended children. I needed to go home.

I had no idea what to do. I needed to find an event organizer but I couldn’t leave them alone? So I started walking around the festival with a line of hand-holding children to find an authority I could give them away to like some sort of reverse Pied Piper

once I ended up in charge of a 3 year old at a funeral and she realized what death was and that she was going to die one day. I was holding her & she was crying while I was desperately trying to locate her parents.

Idk where I’m going with this.

I need to find a way to seem less approachable so no more strange toddlers have mortality crises in my arms.

9K notes View Post

taiisdelusional

10 months ago