People like to say disco is “dead”, but the ABBA blasting in my headphones every morning, and this insanely unique spider, beg to differ.

“Disco Spider” (Possibly: Cyrtarachne inaequalis)

While scientists are unsure if this spider can be identified as Cyrtarachne inaequalis, they know for certain that it belongs to the genus Cyrtarachne: they are sometimes called “bird-dropping spiders” for their resemblance to bird feces. As orb-weaver spiders, they spin large webs, but unlike most orb-weavers, they make specific kinds of webs called “spanning-thread webs” that have smaller radii, don’t spiral, and are spaced wider.

While most Cyrtarachne inaequalis live in Myanmar, India, China, and Korea, this “Disco Spider” has been regularly photographed in Singapore. Scientists are unaware of the purpose of this spider’s colorful pulsations; however, they speculate that these colorful displays could be used to attract prey, dissuade predators, or are simply their digestive fluids at work within them.

While these spiders are extremely interesting, there is not much information out there about this particular species. For all we know, it could be an understudied species. For all we know, it could be a new species. For all we know…these scientists could just be really bad at identifying spiders.

Feel free to check out the video here: https://youtu.be/Jc597oMTZ-s?si=UHv2MKFHVGSOxdXp

In other news, more relevant news, I’m pleased to announce to the people who read these blog posts that I actually did get another tattoo! If you can recall, I mentioned that I really wanted to get a Furrow Spider on my left arm because of its significance to my childhood as well as its significance as an orb-weaver spider. See, orb-weavers can symbolize taking control of one’s own life. Like a person creates their own life, spiders create their own webs, and depending on the type of person and the type of spider, this can be especially metaphorical. Many orb-weavers rebuild their webs every day, recycling the material to create better webs than they’ve built before, just like how a person can take their life experiences and rebuild a better life for themselves any day they so choose.

College has offered me the amazing opportunity to not only take control of my own life as a young adult but has offered me multiple opportunities to begin building a life that I see fit for myself. However, as I do this, I can’t help but be reminded of the people and things that have led me to where I am today, and while this spider represents my new beginnings, it also represents my childhood and my first home.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyrtarachne_inaequalis

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/spiders-pulsating-mystery-singapore

If you’ve ever watched Jurassic Park, then you should easily be able to recall the scene where Dennis Nedry is killed by the dilophosaurus. The dinosaur, first presumed to be harmless, unfurls its frightening frills before spitting acid into Nedry’s face. It’s an iconic sequence, so iconic that it might surprise you to know that dilophosauruses actually didn’t spit venom at all. It was made up for the movie (like so many other things were).

However, there are animals in real life that spit venom, just like the appropriately named: spitting spider.

Spitting Spider (Scytodes thoracica)

Spitting spiders possess the unique ability to “spit” a venomous silken substance from their chelicerae. While they still have silk glands in their abdomens, they also have silk glands located in their cephalothorax and are connected to the venom glands in their chelicerae. When they spot their prey, they measure the distance, usually a half an inch or so from them, before shooting the sticky, venomous, silk from their fangs. It covers the insect in a zig-zag pattern, as each fang produces a shot of the venom, and it congeals into a sticky net that keeps the insect on the ground long enough for the spider to immobilize it with a venomous bite. From there the usual spider procedure follows. They aren’t dangerous to humans, so you won’t need a can of Barbasol to protect you.

This entire process only takes about 1/700^th of a second.

This spider also possesses other incredibly unique abilities and characteristics.

Originally this specific species of spitting spider has a palearctic distribution, but they have been introduced into the United States, New Zealand, and Australia. Spiders usually don’t function well in cold weather, and most of their species live in temperate weather, so it’s interesting how they’re originally distributed in colder climates. These spiders also have 6 eyes like recluse spiders. These eyes are positioned on their high, upwards-sloping carapace, which usually slopes downwards in most other spider species. Some species of spitting spiders exhibit prescoial behavior in which immature and mature spiders share a web with the intent of caring for spiderlings and eggs in a collaborative way. However, S.thoracia is an aggressive species that prefers solitude. Females will carry their eggs in pouches from their abdomen of chelicerae before they hatch. The spiderlings remain in their mother’s web until they reach sexual maturity and become solitary adults.

These spiders are incredibly unique, but while I’m debating getting another tattoo here in the next few weeks, I don’t think I’ll commit to this guy (yet). Until I do, I’ll think of them when I watch Jurassic Park.

Scytodes thoracica – Wikipedia

Spitting spider – Wikipedia

I’m going to start this post with a story.

On September 30, 2023, a friend and I attended Penn State’s Great Insect Fair. I cannot emphasize how incredible it was to go! Tables filled with taxidermy, live specimens, and educational resources; they had everything.

One of my favorite stops was at a large table in the middle of the arena where these loud, boisterous men allowed people to hold different species of arachnids and insects. There were hissing cockroaches, scorpions, tarantulas, and vinegarroons… you know, the basics. Now my friend and I were surprised because they were letting young children handle fairly dangerous creatures without many precautions, and they themselves were handling the animals very casually. One man actually plucked a scorpion off my hand by its stringer!

Now, my friend and I went to a smaller table with fewer animals later, but I noticed they also had a vinegarroon – we’ll talk about them in a minute I promise). I asked if I could hold it, but the woman informed me that vinegarroons actually discharge a vinegar-like liquid when they feel threatened, which can cause damage to a person’s eyes.

We were taken aback by this, especially considering the other table let children hold the arachnid. I asked about the other table and the woman looked at me and said:

“Oh, those guys? They have liability insurance. I don’t.”

Vinegarroons (Order: Uropygi, a.k.a: whip scorpions)

Minorly questionable handling aside, let’s focus on these arachnids.

Vinegarroons, or whip scorpions, belong to an order of arachnids called Uropygi. They live everywhere except Europe, Australia, and Antarctica and prefer tropical, or arid climates. The largest species can be found in Arizona and New Mexico! They don’t have spinnerets, instead, they dig burrows under natural debris.

They look similar to scorpions, but they aren’t true scorpions. They lack the true scorpion’s stinger but they do possess a “whip” (a flagellum) that extends from their abdomen close to where their glands are. It’s a combination of acetic acid and caprylic acid, but as much as it can cause irritation in the eyes, mouth, and open wounds, it won’t harm you. The acid smells like vinegar, which is why they’re called “vinegarroons”. Similar to scorpions, they have two large pedipalps that extend from their cephalothoraxes, but while they can grab prey, they aren’t as powerful as a scorpion’s pedipalps. Interestingly enough, they have 8 legs, but the first two are sensory legs, not walking legs. They also have eight eyes like most other arachnids.

When it comes to their diet, these arachnids eat other insects, arachnids, and sometimes worms and slugs. They’re a key predator that actually keeps cockroach and cricket populations in check.

These arachnids are delightful despite their scary appearance, and while I’m unsure if I’d get a large tattoo of this arachnid, I’d love to incorporate it somewhere as I learn more.

Uropygi – Wikipedia

Today is one of those days where I really, really, really want to get another tattoo.

However, unless something is deeply personal to me or something I value, then I don’t see the point in spending the money to get it permanently etched into my skin. This thought process usually stalls my brain and lets me reflect on the life I’ve led so far, which leads us to the topic of this week’s blog: the furrow spider.

For context, furrow spiders were very common on the farm where I grew up and I would often find them in the windows of my old house. It always made my morning to see their webs glistening with dew in the early morning sun (furrow spiders are orb weavers after all). I was fascinated by them and found myself photographing them with my mother’s phone more times than I bet she would have preferred. Orb weavers generally symbolize patience, creativity, and life itself, and on top of those valuable attributes, they also remind me of my childhood and my first house. While I enjoy learning about orb weavers like the golden silk orb weaver, arachnids who are definitely flashier and more recognizable than furrow orb weavers, the fond memories I have with the latter means more to me than the popularity of other weavers. You know what they say: you can take the girl out of the spider but you can’t take the spider out of the girl (not really, but, you get the picture).

Furrow Spiders (Larinioides cornutus)

Furrow spiders (a.k.a foliage spiders) are orb weavers that primarily live in the Holarctic realm, which includes most continents in the Northern Hemisphere. Despite the fact that many spiders dislike cold weather, this species is surprisingly hearty and all weather. They prefer to live in vegetation close to bodies of water and they rebuild their webs every day, retreating to woven burrows during the night. They actually recycle and reuse the webbing from old webs to make new ones — talk about sustainability — and they do this by eating the silk! Nutritious.

However, they are insectivores first and foremost and prefer to eat insects that are also attracted to water like damselflies, gnats, and mosquitos. They often store the remains of their food in their retreats for later food sources, which can dictate the size and frequency of their web building. If food is abundant, they might not weave extremely large webs every day because they do not need to expend their energy when they have food in storage.

In terms of description, these spiders usually come in shades of brown, black, grey, or even red. Most possess a light-colored, distinctive arrow pattern on their abdomen that points towards their cephalothorax. Once you learn to recognize the pattern, you’re bound to see them almost everywhere you go. They’re very common, but that doesn’t diminish their beauty or my fondness for them as a species, in fact, it does the opposite.

Larinioides cornutus – Wikipedia

ADW: Larinioides cornutus: INFORMATION (animaldiversity.org)

Let’s start with a game.

I’m going to show you 4 images and you’re going to keep track of which of these animals are spiders.

Ready? Go!

How’d you do? Pretty easy right?

Well, guess what: NONE OF THESE ARE SPIDERS.

You might be thinking to yourself, “Autumn, what do you mean? These are clearly Daddy Long Legs! Of course, they’re spiders!”

Now, what if I told you something? Something so unbelievable you just have to believe me. Something so unbelievable that your perception of reality just might shatter under the weight of one blog post. Something that might change you forever.

There are… two (2) arachnids called “daddy long legs” (but we’re only going to talk about the one today).

Crazy right?

Opiliones (a.k.a. harvestmen or daddy long legs)

Harvestmen, as I prefer to call them, are opiliones: an order of arachnids that are actually more closely related to mites and solifuges than spiders. Despite their somewhat similar appearances, these animals are actually more different than people realize.

For starters, harvestmen appear to only have one body segment while spiders visibly have two. They actually do have two body segments, a cephalothorax, and an abdomen, they’re just fused together in a different way than a spider’s body segments. Both harvestmen and spiders have eight legs, but while most spiders also have eight eyes, harvestmen have two large eyes. Harvestmen also cannot produce webs, nor do they have spinnerets. Additionally, the popular myth that daddy long legs are the “most venomous spider in the world, but their fangs are just too small to pierce our skin”, is absolutely false on all levels. First, they aren’t spiders, I already said that. Second, they don’t have fangs! They actually have chelicerae-like solifuges called chelate, and because of that, they aren’t venomous at all! Now cellar spiders, the other arachnid known as “daddy long legs”, do possess venom and fangs, but they aren’t dangerous to humans whatsoever. Because they do not have fangs and are able to chew and digest their food, they have different internal organs.

While listing the differences between these two animals could be its own blog post, I do want to shift focus back to harvestmen and their behaviors. Some species are nocturnal, but some are also diurnal, some are more omnivorous, but some are also scavengers, some species are very large, but some are very small. Most harvestmen are shades of brown in color and have relatively long legs compared to their body size, but some species have shorter legs and are larger in size. Usually, they aren’t larger than 7mm, however, some species can even grow as large as – get this – 22 mm to 340 mm! I’ll let you put your socks back on now. They’re also surprisingly aggressive, but not often towards their own species. In fact, harvestmen will often group together to gather moisture and provide one another with protection.

To conclude, they’re funky; they’re fresh; they’d make for a sick tattoo.

Opiliones – Wikipedia