Today I want to take you to know about the arthropod, the spiny spider.
Spiny spider
Gasteracantha diadesmia
Arthropods, Arachnids, Arachnids, Garden Arachnidae, Acanthocercus arachnids. It is often woven between the branches of the trees and at the corners of the eaves to catch small insects such as mosquitoes and flies. It is mainly distributed in Guangdong, Guangxi and Yunnan, and the photo is taken in Pu'er West League.
The spiny spider is a smaller spider whose females are about 7 mm long and whose males are much smaller than females and are almost difficult to detect with the naked eye. The common female spiny spider has an elongated prismatic abdomen, and 3 pairs of "spines" on the back and sides of the abdomen, which are the parts with spikes in the photo, which at first glance look like two overlapping "maple leaves". The abdomen is more than a dozen symmetrically distributed russet muscle marks, that is, irregular "small boxes" in the picture, of which 6 are larger at the edges.
In addition to its peculiar shape, the spiny spider is also extremely colorful, with bright yellow stripes on its abdomen, with russet and black in between.
In fact, these colorful body colors are the "camouflage suits" worn by the spiny spider. In nature, many animals are "amblyopia", not only unable to distinguish colors, but even some objects seen are mosaic-shaped. The "bells and whistles" body color can be a good way to "trick" those creatures whose eyes have evolved to be less advanced. As for those animals that can clearly see the different colors of objects, the bright and colorful body color can play a warning color, as if to say: "Hey, stay away from me, I'm toxic." ”
Special thanks: Dr. Huang Guiqiang of Liupanshui Normal University in Guizhou Province provided professional information and text support for this article.
Fan Yi is an ecological photographer. He has won the Grand Prize of the International Garden Photographer Annual Competition for 4 consecutive years and the first prize in the wild animal and plant category of the first China Eco-Photography Competition in 2018. He is committed to photographing the cultural landscape and biodiversity of western China, especially in Yunnan.
Coordinator: Lian Huiling
Character arrangement: Tamoto
Poster Design: Zheng Biyin