◎ Li Di Chen Ke
"This spider is called the bell nest bell spider, and its name comes from its ability to hang the collected rubble on the cliff depression with silk to build a nest as delicate as a hanging bell." On May 6, Zhao Li, director of the Huaxi Insect Museum in Chengdu, said that a few days ago he photographed a rare spider at a rock wall depression in Qingcheng Mountain, Dujiangyan, Chengdu, Sichuan Province.
Bell nest bell spider
The "Bell Nest Bell Spider", also known as the Bell Nest Spider (scientific name: Achaeranea campanulata), belongs to the genus Of the bulbous spider Koxi. The species was discovered in China in 1990, and was first discovered in Zhejiang. As of now, the recorded distribution areas are Zhejiang, Hubei and Guizhou, and this is the first time that it has been found in Sichuan.
Building "cottages in the sky" using building materials
As we all know, spiders either have webs in the air or burrow in the ground, but this kind of spider is different, and it will use building materials to build exquisite "air cottages". It is not an exaggeration to call their nests "viewing rooms", and the nests of the bell nests found this time are hanging in a beautiful place on the cliff depression.
"All the descriptions of the bell nest bell spider are living in the bell nest, hanging in the recesses of the rock wall, and I have observed that in other environments, even the eaves of the cliff structure similar to the natural environment, this spider has not been found." Zhao Li said.
He believes that it may be because of the particularity of the choice of living environment of the bell nest bell spider, resulting in the extreme rarity of the species, which is also the only spider in the world known to make a nest using building materials other than its own silk. "As such, the bell nest bell spider has also been placed in the genus Heliospithecus in taxonomy, and it can be seen from the name that the relevant experts have summarized the entire taxon."
Seeing this, are you more curious, how do these spiders build their "viewing rooms"? In fact, no one has yet observed the production process of the bell nest of the bell nest.
Outside the bell spider's lair hangs its faded skin
It is worth noting that during the filming, Zhao Li accidentally found that the peel of the bell nest bell spider was hanging under the nest. "This is enough to prove that although this spider usually lives in the nest, it is hung outside the nest when it molts." This is an interesting record of their life habits, and since the spiders are rarely found, it remains to be further studied how they prey, courtship, and other life habits. He said.
Lifestyle is located "beyond the Three Realms"
In the animal kingdom, there are many amazing architects who are built in a variety of strange ways, and the "soft builder", the spider, is one of them.
This type of spider is different from today's "protagonist" bell nest bell spider, it mainly secretes mucus through the protrusion of the tip of its own silk sac, and the mucus can condense into a very fine silk when it encounters the air, and builds a "hole" with silk, which is also our common web-weaving spider.
Bell Spider with its "Viewing Room"
According to lifestyle, spiders are divided into nomadic spiders, which will forage around; web-weaving spiders, which will wait for rabbits after weaving webs; cave-dwelling spiders, which like to hide in holes, and have no stickiness at the mouth of the hole to sense the webs of prey. "The main representatives of the nomadic spiders are crab spiders and jumping spiders, and the spiders of these groups do not weave webs, but wander around in search of food. However, most groups of spiders still live in fixed places. Zhao Li introduced.
"I found the nest of the bell nest last year, but I don't know who the residents who live in it are, and this year I saw its true face in the old place that I found last year, and this spider seems to live in a special environment." Zhao Li said that the bell nest bell spider is neither a nomadic type, nor a web-weaving type, nor a spider that digs holes in the ground.
According to reports, the bell spider was established in 2015, and there are currently 5 known species in this genus, distributed in Japan, South Korea and China. These spiders are very small, and the body size of all species is recorded to be no more than 3mm. In addition, all species of the genus Bell Spider will make a bell-shaped nest from spider silk and dirt, gravel, branches or grass clippings, with the entrance facing down, usually hiding in the nest, hence the name "Bell Spider".
"Their way of life is very special, located 'outside the Three Realms', and the traditional spider lifestyle classification is not suitable for them, so Japanese experts have independently formed them into a new taxon." Zhao Li said that as of 2020, there are 69 families, 809 genera and 5084 species of spiders in China; there are 120 families, 4159 genera and 48479 species of spiders in the world.
Fingertip bell nest bell spider "viewing room"
Source: Science and Technology Daily The pictures in the article are provided by Zhao Li
Source: Science and Technology Daily