#DailySpiderPic: found a couple of _Myrmarachne_ ant-mimic jumping spiders on the garden wall today! With their shape and coloration combined with fast staccato motion, if you're not looking closely it's easy to confuse them with their model, _Camponotus_ carpenter ants (pictured: a worker feeding on a bit of apple I gave them, also today).

#bugstodon #antstodon #arachnids #spiders #JumpingSpiders #insects #ants #mimicry #myrmecomorphy #Araneae #Salticidae #Hymenoptera #Formicidae #ArthroBeauty

#NewSpecies!
New spider from #morocco just snuck in:

Dysdera sidimaafa

Treatment: https://treatment.plazi.org/id/FF190927-FFB6-DB16-FDA7-FA8DBF7AFD39
Publication: https://doi.org/10.5852/ejt.2026.1067.3292
#EuropeanJournalOfTaxonomy #DysderaSidimaafa

#FAIRdata
#science #OA #openaccess #biology #taxonomy #ecology #biodiversity #nature #wildlife #conservation #animals #fauna #invertebrates #arachnology #arachnids #spider

Has Science Gone Too Far????

Slightly inspired by @thebiologistisn's blue bean project, I experimented with adding food colouring to the little eyedropper bottle of water I carry around during Peak Anystid. (Putting down a drop of water can make them stop to drink, an easy way to get these hyperactive mites to hold still for photos.) It was fun seeing the mites turn slightly blue, but I changed it back to plain water because I didn't want to leave unsightly dried-up blue spots all over the plants and street furniture and whatnot.

#DailyMitePic #Mitestodon #arachnids #mites #Acari #Acariformes #Anystidae

On the menu today for the whirligig mites:

- aphid?
- big plant bug
- little plant bug
- sidewalk mite

#DailyMitePic #Mitestodon #bugstodon #arachnids #mites #insects #Acari #Acariformes #Anystidae #Erythraeidae #Hemiptera #Miridae #Aphididae

A whip scorpion (nearly-dead, alas) was lying on the porch outside after dinner. (I didn't flip it over, it was like this when we returned from our walk.)

#nature #arthropods #arachnids

A beautiful and striking little jumping spider that was hanging around on the Bauhinia tree where the weaver ants are.

It looks like it's grabbed a little scale insect from the tree (see the last photo). It was definitely holding something white.

I got quite close to it, and you can see in the last photo that it's raised up and looking straight at me. Then it decided to go and hide under the leaf.

#nature #arachnids

Today's whirligig mites are eating:
- small fly (midge?)
- plant bug nymphs
- another whirligig mite

#DailyMitePic #Mitestodon #bugstodon #arachnids #mites #Acari #Acariformes #Anystidae