Cyclosa octotuberculata is a small, spiky spider with a nasty, nasty habit.
We saw before how the
Leaf Curling Spider hid away in a dead leaf placed in the middle of its web, thereby protecting itself from predators.
C. octotuberculata does something sort of similar. It's just that one, dead leaf is not enough.
C. octotuberculata lines up a whole strip of dead bodies and other debris in a line running down its web. It's a
great bridge composed of the gutted corpses, the emptied exoskeletons of long gone prey. At its centre, the lady of the web stands camouflaged against her morbid creation as she awaits new building material.
They live in Australia, Japan and probably a few other places I couldn't find out. Their Japanese name translates to "Trash Spider", so I guess my trash pillar would be composed almost entirely of chocolate bar wrappers.
pretty cool engineering!
ReplyDeleteAh! There's the bright side!
ReplyDeleteWow! This structure reminds me SO much of the Wamphyri homes in Brian Lumley's series. They too, were built of the bones and skeletons and still working parts of creatures the Wamphyri had killed. Amazing!
ReplyDeleteThat's so cool! Or nasty. Or both.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful and looking dangerous at the same time...
ReplyDeleteNope, don't mind me, nothing to see here, just a giant flying column of corpses.
ReplyDelete@ramireziblog: Yes! A lot spiders are really good at that!
ReplyDelete@Crunchy: Haha! I guess having corpses strewn around the place is more fashionable for some animals than for others.
Boards of Canada.
ReplyDelete