found another pair of mating leaf-curling sac spiders (family Clubionidae)!
The bubble-like thing in the first picture is the haematodocha, a sac in the male's palpal bulb that inflates to change the orientation/shape of the pedipalp to allow it to lock in to the female's convoluted genital opening.
#DailySpiderPic #SpiderSunday #spiders #SpiderSex #Araneae #Clubionidae
Here's a short clip of the haematodocha deflating and inflating, using the hydraulic pressure of haemolymph (arthropod "blood"). Uh, NSFW unless you're an arachnologist I guess
#DailySpiderVid #SpidersOfMastodon #SpiderSex #spiders #Araneae #Clubionidae
A pair of mating leaf-curling sac spiders (_Clubiona_) from last night!
The male is reaching his left pedipalp underneath the female to transfer sperm to the corresponding reproductive opening (she has one on each side). The pale balloon-like structure visible in the last photo is one of the haematodochae on the pedipalp. The haematodocha is an inflatable sac or membrane that rotates various bits of the palpal bulb so it can kind of lock in. Video in next post.
#DailySpiderPic #SpidersOfMastodon #SpiderSex #spiders #Araneae #Clubionidae
New Deep Look video is about _Tetragnatha_ mating! Great footage: https://youtu.be/-CqBIjhpL0Q
#Arachnews #spiders #SpiderSex #nsfw (unless you work as an arachnologist I guess)
#Arachtober 30: from July, a pair of _Tetragnatha_ long-jawed orbweavers mating. They normally mate hanging midair in a web, which makes them difficult to photograph; but this pair ended up on a solid surface, letting me get some better photos.
They mate face-to-face with jaws locked together, while the male reaches between them with a long pedipalp to transfer sperm to the female's epigyne (genital opening). The end of a mature male spider's pedipalp is an extraordinarily complex and dynamic organ, with bits that inflate to twist its configuration and allow it to fit into the epigyne, and every species is a little different. You can see illustrations of different _Tetragnatha_ palps here: https://araneae.nmbe.ch/specieskey/325/Tetragnatha
(The testes are not hooked up to the pedipalps or anything; the male's genital opening is in the abdomen, like the female's. Before mating, the male deposits sperm on a bit of web and draws it up into the pedipalps, as if with an extremely complicated turkey baster. Edit: for pics, see https://flipping.rocks/@nev/112636096285259211)
Spider sex is one of the most interesting things about spiders.
I'd say the pics are NSFW but if your co-workers fully recognize what they're looking at, you're probably arachnologists and this IS your job.
#DailySpiderPic #SpidersOfMastodon #SpiderSex • #Araneae #Tetragnathidae
On another tree I saw a courting male _Tetragnatha_ exuding a drop of semen onto a loose tangle of silk, then reach down and grab it with his pedipalps (the short appendages on either side of his jaws). In mature males, the palps are complex organs that are used kind of like turkey basters to inseminate females. I'd never seen this at all in any spider!!
Marked sensitive because, well, spider semen.
#DailySpiderPic #SpidersOfMastodon #SpiderSex #spiders #Araneae #Tetragnathidae #SpiderBehaviour
neville park
cassandroid אַנטיפֿאַ