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[helen99]

Vegetarian spider found.

According to this article, "The vegetarian diet of B kiplingi appears to have prompted other changes. Since it no longer needs to go through the energy-sapping business of catching prey, it has diverted its web-spinning abilities to building family homes. Mothers use the nests to rear their young."

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Comments

[kiarrith]

*ears up*

[helen99]

The golden orb spiders that they used to make the cloth were insectivores and needed their webs to eat. I can't see them surviving the three weeks it would take to regenerate their webs, since they'd be without their means of feeding themselves. Herbivores would definitely have a better chance. The trouble with the Bagheeras is, they only eat the beltian bodies from acacias, which only grow in the presence of certain types of ants. This is kind of limiting, though not insurmountable. Another factor is that the silking process is kind of hideous from the perspective of the arachnid. This may not be as bad as it seems, since spiders tend to go kind of comatose when their lives are threatened, and reports have said that they are uncharacteristically docile during the process. Maybe they anesthetize themselves and slow down their body processes to give themselves a better chance. Case in point, spiders that have been 'drowned' come back to life several hours later.

[silvaerina_tael]

I was going to send you the bottom link regarding the Weird Science article, but seeing as you already have it...

[jolantru]

Vegetarian spider! Yay! :)

[eaight]

Indeed, why are you posting a bout spider?! :-D

Yesurday, I saw an aquantence I haven't seen in ages wearing a shirt w/ a spider on it. I was wearing my spider necklace. Spiders are a very potent symbol for me. I just got don reading "Liber Null" tonight. In it, Peter Caroll (sp?) sais that when a practictioner advances, such coincindences are no longer seen as such but are rather seen as an actualization of the magician's will and a sign that she is improving. :-D

Indeed, why are you posting about spiders?! I love them!

[helen99]

These fuzzy little aliens have won me over. I'm beginning to like them at a distance (by 'distance' I mean way out of jumping range - Salticidae can leap large distances).

[eaight]

Perhaps you'll love spiders like I do when I love celery (after I manage to turn an aversion into an attraction).