Wild Facts

Photo by Thomas Shahan (Wikimedia)

Today’s Wild Fact may be creepy but I promise it won’t bite……on second thought, it probably will bite a little. The Rabid Wolf Spider is known to be rather aggressive, however, they are not typically dangerous to humans. This is a good thing since they are one of the most common spiders found throughout the United States. Although, they are typically found on the western side towards Texas, they have been spotted as far east as Maine and Florida….which is pretty much as far east as you can go. So is anyone up for a quick trip to the States to find one of these magnificent creatures? How come it’s always harder to get people to come on a spider expedition then it is for something cute like a monkey?

What’s My Name!?

The Rabid Wolf Spider probably has one of the coolest names in the Animal Kingdom. They received this wicked name as a result of their hunting ability. Apparently, this spider prefers to hunt their prey, which includes crickets, ants, grasshoppers and other spiders, by slowly stalking them from a distance over a certain period of time. Yes, this is a similar hunting strategy that wolves and wild dogs employ, hence the name. I am guessing the “Rabid” tag was added on as a result of their aggressive nature but this is just my own hypothesis. 

E.R. Degginger / Color-Pic, Inc.

A Grumpy Spider

As mentioned, the Rabid Wolf Spider is one of the most common spiders in the United States of America and as such they have adapted to a wide variety of environments. This particular spider has a tough time staying in one location and is known to wander from spot to spot for most of their lives. As a result, they have a lot of interactions with humans and other spiders. Perhaps, this is why they are so aggressive – they are just tired from traveling and want to get to their “next” home without being bothered. The Rabid Wolf Spider is often preyed on by larger animals such as dogs, cats, snakes and other wolf spiders, which means they need to be cautious when traveling around the country. This is why you will typically find these spiders under bushes and throughout the litter of the forest floor – they are trying to hide, so make sure you don’t take them out of their awesome hiding spot.

That does it for today’s Wild Fact. I hope you enjoyed learning about the impressive Rabid Wolf Spider.

Photo by Akio Tanikawa (Wikimedia)

So it looks like you made it through another great week of animal facts. We are going to end this particular week off with a rather interesting spider that will probably make you jump. The Portia Spider is part of the Jumping Spider family and has to be one of the most intriguing spiders out there. The Portia Spider can be found throughout a variety of locations including Africa, China, Australia, Vietnam, Philippines, India, Sri Lanka among other places. Needless to say, they shouldn’t be too difficult to find. I just hope they don’t outsmart us!

Smartest Spider on Earth

Photo by Akio Tanikawa (Wikimedia)

The Portia Spider appears to be incredibly intelligent. In fact, they may just be the smartest spider on the face of the planet. What makes these spiders so smart? It all has to do with their creative, problem-solving abilities. Wait?! What kind of problems could a spider possibly have? Well, they need to successfully capture prey so they don’t starve to death. The Portia Spider seems to take pride in finding different ways to catch their prey. Oh and in case you were wondering, they feed on other spiders and don’t usually use a web to catch them.

A Diabolical Villain

This deadly spider could easily rival The Joker and Lex Luther for the worlds most evil villain. You see, the Portia will design a specialized tactic for every spider they plan to eat. For example, if they are in the mood for a Spitting Spider, they will sneak up behind it so they don’t have to deal with the venomous spit.

Some other hunting strategies include:

• Pretending to be a fly caught in a web;
• Pretending to be an inanimate object such as a leaf;
• Imitate the mating ritual of a specific spider species;
• Attaching their own web to the web of their prey – basically making a trap out of the other spider’s trap (that is just mean!);
• Catching a fly and putting it in the spiders web – while the spider is eating the fly, the Portia sneaks up and eats the spider.

Do you see how diabolical these incredible spiders are? I have just mentioned a few of their cunning hunting strategies but their ingenuity is quite impressive and I am glad they don’t like the taste of humans.

That does it for this week of Wild Facts. I hope you enjoyed learning about the Evil Villain of the Spider world. Have a great weekend and  I will see you on Monday.

http://news.sky.com/home/world-news/article/15267921

As the week is winding down, I figured everyone could use a good smile to help get them through til Friday. I am willing to bet that today’s animal will put a smile on everybody’s face. In fact, even the Happy Face Spider is smiling, so if he can do it then so can you. Believe it or not, that picture is not photo-shopped or doctored in any way. I know, it is hard to believe that a spider can be so incredibly happy but the proof is right there on its back. Perhaps we should take a minute and find out why this spider is in such a great mood.

The Happy Face Spider is technically known as the Theridion grallator but that isn’t nearly as much fun so we are going to stick with their adopted common name. This uplifting spider is found among the islands of Hawaii, where it was given the local name “nananana makaki’i” which simply means Face-Patterned Spider. The Hawaiian name is probably the most accurate since not all species of this spider has the distinct happy face shown above. I suppose the species pictured above was the first one to fall asleep at the last “nananana makaki’i” party. I just hope for the spider’s sake that it is a washable marker.

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So what is the purpose of the smiley face? Well, it is believed that this face-pattern is a great defense mechanism towards birds. After all, would you want to eat a large emoticon, if you were a bird? Okay, so maybe it isn’t that large of an emoticon since the Happy Face Spider is only a few millimetres in length. Nonetheless, I am pretty sure it would catch the birds off guard, and hopefully provide the spider with a few seconds to escape while their predator tries to figure out what they are looking at.

Happy Face Spider Fast Fact –  Although, they are not yet listed on the IUCN list, the Happy Face Spider is becoming threatened since they live in very specialized habitat on the islands of Hawaii. Unfortunately, this habitat is at risk from the introduction of non-native species. It would be an incredibly sad day if the Happy Face Spider ceases to exist.

Well, I hope you are smiling now because I know I am. Enjoy the rest of your day and I will see you tomorrow.

Photo from Wikicommons

Lately it seems as though we have been focusing on way to many mammal species so today we are going to learn about a very cool eight legged animal.  Now, I know some of you may not like spiders but I can guarantee that you will find Jumping Spiders to be very interesting.  I am just going to talk about the broad characteristics since there are over 5000 species of Jumping Spiders.  This makes them the largest family of spiders as they comprise about 13% of all spiders out there.  I just realized that I could complete my Wild Facts project 5 times over just with this one family.  Maybe I should start a second blog called Spider Facts!

Since the this family is so large you can virtually find a Jumping Spider species anywhere in the world; however, I doubt they reside in Antarctica or the in the extreme north such as Greenland.  Basically this means that we don’t have to go on a field trip today.  Grab your glass of lemonade and sit out in the backyard for awhile.  For the record I am not going to do this since it was 25 below with the windchill today.  So who wants to learn about some of the unique behaviours and characteristics of this spider?  Wow, I didn’t realize all of you were so excited.  Well let’s get to it then.

Photo by Thomas Shahan (Wikicommons)

When you look at the picture you probably notice their eyes first and foremost.  This makes sense since these eyes are unique and play a huge role in the Jumping Spiders life.  You see the Jumping Spider spends their days actively hunting other insects.  They aren’t lazy like other spiders that just build a web and hope something flies into it.  These spiders are like a wild cat in the savannah as they wait to pounce on their prey.  They use their keen sense of vision to pick up and track any insect that happens to be in their area.  The spider will then get into position and when the time is right they will pounce.  Jumping spiders can jump about 10 to 40 times the length of their body.  Just so you know their body length is typically between 3-10 mm (0.12-0.39″) so they are pretty small but being able to jump 10-40 times that length is still pretty impressive.

Jumping Spider Fast Fact – Let’s finish up the post talking about their funny looking eyes.  The Jumping Spider will usually have four pairs of eyes so if my math is correct that would be eight eyes.  They typically have these eyes arranged in three rows with two very large eyes in the middle of their flat head.  As mentioned earlier their eyesight is excellent as they rely on it to track their prey.

See, that spider fact wasn’t too bad now was it?  Before you go I recommend checking out the short video of a Jumping Spider in action.  It is from National Geographic so you know it will be good.

Photo by Victor Patel

I just realized I missed a very important date in history.  On August 22, 2010, Wild Facts celebrated its 1 year anniversary. I can’t believe it has been over a year already.  We have covered off quite a few animal species so far and I am just as excited as I was back then to continue on with the amazing feats of nature.  With that said, we are going to look at the Golden Orb Weaver today which is truly an incredible spider. I want to thank Kanjiruminamoto for the excellent suggestion. This particular spider is also known as a Giant Wood Spider or Banana Spider.

Their name, Golden Orb Weaver, does not come from the colour of the spider but instead the colour of their web.  That’s right spider fans, the Golden Orb Weaver will actually spin a gold web.  Now before you run out and try to collect these gold webs to send into “Dollars 4 Gold” you need to know that they aren’t real gold.  Actually, I think I would like to try this experiment to see if they will send you a cheque for your gold web. For the record, does anyone else see the flaw in packing up your gold into an envelope, sending it to a company that “promises” to send you back a cheque worth top dollar?

Golden Orb Weaver eating a bird

Although the gold colour of these webs are impressive I find the size far more interesting.  Believe it or not the Golden Orb Weaver is capable of making a spider web with the circular center section being more than 1 m (3′) across and can have supporting threads ranging much further. Some reports identified the webs being 6 m (18′) high by 2 m (6′) wide.  Basically, they make really big and really strong spider webs.  In fact these silk webs are so incredibly strong that they have been known to catch small birds.  Usually the spider won’t eat the birds but as you can see in the picture to the left, that isn’t always the case.  By the way is anyone else creeped out by that picture? Again, the strength of these webs allows the spider to keep them for several years.

You have to figure that if the webs are that big than the spider must be pretty big as well.  Typically the female version of the Golden Orb Weaver will be about 5 cm (2″) from toe to toe while the males are considerably smaller.  Again, there have been reports from Australia that some of these spiders grow as large as your hand and in some cases may get even larger. That would be one big spider, my friends.

Golden Orb Weaver Fast Fact - The silk created from the Golden Orb Weaver is almost as strong as Kevlar.  You know that stuff found in bullet-proof vests. Yeah, that strong! The poor bird didn’t stand a chance, heck even a gun would have been useless for the surprised bird.

Well that just about does it for me today.  I apologize to all of the people out there afraid of spiders. I  am sure the image of a spider eating a bird didn’t help with that phobia. Once you are finished your panic attack, I suggest watching the 2 minute video clip below. In the clip the Golden Orb Weaver is wrapping up a wasp in order to store it for later.  As one of the comments on YouTube pointed out, “Think of it as Tupperware for spiders”.

I was having a tough time deciding what to write about tonight until I had a suggestion from one of my biggest fans, my mom!  She originally wanted me to write about the “Dock Spider” but I think I will save that post for another day.  Her second choice was to write about the Harvestman!  Of course, she called them something a little more familiar, “Daddy Longlegs.” Let’s move onto the interesting stuff.

As I mentioned, in North America, the Harvestman is better known as the Daddy Longlegs.  In Europe this common name is reserved for another insect called the Crane Fly, which will also be discussed in the future. The biggest and most important thing you need to know about Daddy Longlegs, I hope you are sitting for this one, is that they are not actually spiders. They may look like spiders but they are very different. Instead of having eight eyes such as a regular spider, the harvestman only have two.  As well, spiders have two body segments while the “daddy longlegs” have their head, thorax and abdomen all fused together into one.  Just to make sure everyone is clear, the daddy longlegs is part of the Arachnid class like spiders, however, they are not actually spiders.  To put it another way it would be the same as mistaking a mosquito for a ladybug.  Mosquitoes are insects but not beetles.

Now, let’s talk about the most prominent feature of the harvestman.  Their extremely long and special second pair of legs.  This set of legs touches the ground before any other part of the harvestman.  They contain special sensory organs that allow them to get an advance taste and feel for the ground ahead.  Basically, these legs act as their nose, tongue, ears and perhaps even as a second set of eyes.  Unfortunately, the harvestman have a defense mechanism that causes them to lose their legs if they are in danger.  This obviously allows them the ability to escape, if necessary.  I tell you this so you don’t handle these special animals too much.  The loss of their legs is a serious problem since it would be like taking away your nose, mouth and ears!

Harvestman Fast Fact: The daddy longlegs are not capable of killing or poisoning their own prey so will resort to eating dead insects or the eggs of insects and spiders.

Photograph by George Grall

Warning! If you have a fear of spiders than today’s post is not for you; however, it is probably too late since you have already seen the picture of the popular spider above.  Don’t worry, it is just a picture and won’t do you any harm. In fact, if you keep reading you will find out exactly what harm the Black Widow Spider can cause.

The black widow spider is a popular and much feared spider. It is amazing how scary a spider ranging in size between 1.3-3.8 cm (0.5-1.5″) can seem to us. I guess the reason we panic when we hear about this teeny tiny spider has to do with the fact that it contains venom 15 times stronger than a rattlesnake. Yup, that would scare the pants off me.  Unfortunately, most people don’t realize that the quantity of this venom isn’t usually deadly. For the most part, if you are bitten by a black widow you will experience nausea, muscle aches and it may have difficulties breathing.  Heck, these are some of the same symptoms you would experience from the H1N1 vaccine.  Whatever happened to that pandemic? There have been occasions where the black widow has killed humans, however, they are usually the elderly, young or sick.  It is also important to know that the black widow doesn’t wake up in the morning put on its war paint and head out looking for people to bite.  They are not aggressive and will only bite as a form of self defense, so watch where you sit.

Have you ever wondered why this particular spider is called the black widow? Believe it or not, the reason you are thinking is correct! You were not entirely correct if you were thinking that the female finds some unsuspecting, rich male to marry and then murder him in order to get all of his money. Although, the female may kill and consume their mate after reproduction. This will provide the female spider with the energy required to lay her eggs. As a male, I am happy that I am not a black widow spider.

Photograph by George Grall

Warning! If you have a fear of spiders than today’s post is not for you; however, it is probably too late since you have already seen the picture of the popular spider above.  Don’t worry, it is just a picture and won’t do you any harm. In fact, if you keep reading you will find out exactly what harm the Black Widow Spider can cause.

The black widow spider is a popular and much feared spider. It is amazing how scary a spider ranging in size between 1.3-3.8 cm (0.5-1.5″) can seem to us. I guess the reason we panic when we hear about this teeny tiny spider has to do with the fact that it contains venom 15 times stronger than a rattlesnake. Yup, that would scare the pants off me.  Unfortunately, most people don’t realize that the quantity of this venom isn’t usually deadly. For the most part, if you are bitten by a black widow you will experience nausea, muscle aches and it may have difficulties breathing.  Heck, these are some of the same symptoms you would experience from the H1N1 vaccine.  Whatever happened to that pandemic? There have been occasions where the black widow has killed humans, however, they are usually the elderly, young or sick.  It is also important to know that the black widow doesn’t wake up in the morning put on its war paint and head out looking for people to bite.  They are not aggressive and will only bite as a form of self defense, so watch where you sit.

Have you ever wondered why this particular spider is called the black widow? Believe it or not, the reason you are thinking is correct! You were not entirely correct if you were thinking that the female finds some unsuspecting, rich male to marry and then murder him in order to get all of his money. Although, the female may kill and consume their mate after reproduction. This will provide the female spider with the energy required to lay her eggs. As a male, I am happy that I am not a black widow spider.