All of the dark little specks are babies. Bunches of them! And they all (momma and the egg sacs, and now spiderlings) have been in a sealed (no air holes) jar for 23 days. I've done some looking and found that it's not uncommon for spiders to survive long periods of time without food, water, or air. I even read claims that some spiders have lived up to 18 months without air, water, or food. Amazing!
Anyone who doubts the hardiness of Life and its ability to survive should pay close attention to my little experiment. In the photo you can see the remains of a butterfly and some other bug parts that the momma spider fed on a couple of months ago. However, as much as I've watched her I have not seen her feeding on any remains or on any of the babies. Time will show us if she does cannibalize the spiderlings or if they begin to cannibalize each other (or her) and how much longer they will survive without the introduction of any food, water, or air.
Again, if anyone is offended by my treatment of these creatures I'll remind them that I'm doing this for 'research'. Hell, if it's okay to use human embryos for stem cell research then it's okay for me to sacrifice the lives of some spiders to further my (and anyone who might read this) appreciation and understanding of Life. And besides, I'll assure you that Karma has already begun to play its game with me by invading my dreams with black widow spiders. Just last night I dreamed about my entire house being infested by them, yet it was less a nightmare than an interesting perspective and source of study.
And yeah, that bitch has still got to die eventually. ;-)
7 comments:
I was just thinking about your spider, because I thought I got bit a couple of days ago.
(After some research, I don't think so, since it's not itching.)
I didn't realize each momma had so many babies!
Dammit, I'm insulted...my cousin is a spider! OK, sorry, had to do that! It's pretty wild how hearty those little buggers are...I know they laugh at bug spray!
No comment!
thanks, Rae Ann, this has made my day. was beginning to think i'm really mean and crazy, so it's nice to see that i'm relatively kind and sane by comparison to you.
you really are going a bit psycho ... first a crush on Lubos Motl, then attacting Peter Woit because you don't like his hairstyle, now this ...
bet Woit is glad you don't have a crush on him, now. what happens if the glass jar gets broken accidentally by one of your kids, and spiders escape and hide in your bed or slippers, or food?
i've seen a film showing that those spiders can bite people! they'll be really hungry when they escape, too.
are they the ones with the watchglass symbol on their backs?
i meant "attacking Peter Woit" not attracting him! sorry
I'm all confused now - thought this was your latest post, because it was top of Google for "vicious momma" when I searched, but it is now obviously an old post from July.
nigel, why are you so concerned about my distaste for Woit? I never said anything about Woit's hairstyle.
And I'm not worried about being "psycho" because that's not really any kind of new development. ;-)
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