Liu Guangyu Knowledge is power
Summer is here,
The spider began to come alive.
Thinking of spiders,
What comes to mind
Spider Man？
Or Lucas the Spider?
In Australia, a spider climbed up in the middle of the night
The door of the owner of the house opens the crazy doorbell mode.
Image from Sina News
Although the spider looks inconspicuous,
But they survive in nature
Still the king, still the chivalrous.
This is not,
In order to reproduce,
They practice the Sunflower Codex.
Don't believe me, please see...
Mommy Big Spider
Poisonous, terrifying, and merciless, this is most people's first impression of spiders. In fact, however, spiders are much warmer and even more motherly than we think. During the preparation period, some mother spiders weave a unique egg bag to prepare a safe and comfortable environment for their children. They weave a waterproof web, then a velvety spider silk, lay the eggs on top, and finally seal the egg bags.
The mother leopard spider carries an egg band with her to protect the eggs from hatching
Although most spider mothers will throw their hands away after laying their eggs and no longer interfere in the life of the baby spider, there are also some spider mothers who will take good care of the baby. For example, the mother of the ditch leopard spider will hang the egg bag on her ass, take the egg bag wherever she goes, in wet weather, she will also find a warm place for the spider eggs and avoid natural enemies to the greatest extent; for example, the mother of the pseudo-ringed leopard spider will carry it on her back after the baby is born, hunt for it, and raise it until they can support themselves. What's even more amazing is that there is a spider that can feed and raise juvenile spiders in a manner similar to breastfeeding.
One day in 2017, Chen Zhanqi, a young scientist at the Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, was walking in the bamboo forest of anchovies when he spotted a spider with a small head and a black body that resembled an ant (the big ant spider got its name). He found that the spider baby, who was similar in size to his mother, was still living with his mother. Usually, after the baby spider is born, it is quickly driven out of the nest by its mother. Why is the big ant spider so protective? With this question in mind, scientists in the botanical garden conducted in-depth observations and studies of the giant ant spider.
After more than a year of research, they discovered the earth-shattering secret of the giant ant spider: spiders also feed their children, just like mammals, feed their children with milk, and feed their offspring for a long time. After the baby spider hatches in the bamboo leaf nest, the mother spider will secrete a high-protein liquid through the reproductive groove of the abdomen and feed the baby spider for about 20 days. After that, the baby spiders began to go out to hunt, occasionally going home to suck milk until they were completely weaned at 40 days. At this time, the little spider has grown to 80% of the size of its mother's head, and it has the ability to resist the risks in the wild.
After weaning, the mother of the big ant spider will drive the male spider out of the house, leaving the female spider to live with herself. This ultra-long spider feeding offspring pattern, somewhat similar to mammalian behavior, provides a new perspective for us to understand the evolution of long-term mammalian behavior in animals.
Wielding a sword from the palace to practice the "Sunflower Treasure Book"
Mating and reproduction are the most important links in the life of all animals, and spiders are no exception. In the spider world, marriage generally does not exist, and most female spiders will be unusually fierce to kill the careless male spider and eat it as a snack. Scientists call this act of females killing males "killers." Like praying mantises, female spiders kill and eat mating male spiders in order to better obtain nutrients.
The unique behavior of the killer prompts the male spider to come up with a very variety of countermeasures to appease, attract and escape the female spider. For example, when the jumping spider courtship, the male spider will dance to the female spider and win the heart with a unique dance posture; some species of spiders will send gifts to the female, send food, and take advantage of the female spider's meal to end mating like lightning; some even play with the power trick, send false gifts to the female, and complete mating at the moment she opens the package.
A common spider stick in China, the petite male spider will spit silk to massage the female spider, soothe the female's killing heart, and eventually win the opportunity to mate and pass on the generations.
In the rainforest of Xishuangbanna, there is a kind of bride whose reproductive strategy is even more peculiar. The spiders are called mara bridesmaids, and they usually live under stone walls or under the eaves of old houses. Female spiders are rounded and can form a large web that approximates a triangle, while male spiders are smaller and have a reddish body color, often wandering in the distance of female spiders.
Mara nearro bride female spider
Scientists at the National University of Singapore have discovered an interesting phenomenon - the male spider of the bride of Mara Nearlo, fearing being eaten by the female, evolved the behavior of swinging a knife from the palace after mating and immediately escaping, and practiced the "sword spectrum to ward off evil" in martial arts novels.
The male Mara nearlo bride has two "tentacles" for mating, it collects sperm on the tentacles, takes advantage of the female to eat or is not careful, quickly slips to the female's abdomen, inserts one tentacle into the female spider's reproductive hole, and then quickly cuts the mating device and escapes. Miraculously, the males after the "palace" become more aggressive, the strength is greatly increased, and other male spiders that come to mate with the female are beaten away in order to maximize the chances of the female spider producing her own offspring.
Comparison of the female spider (left) and the female spider (right) of the bride of Mara Nearlo