These amazing and tiny web structures are found in the Amazon. They only recently have been discovered and their unusual design has caused much speculation. The center of the structure is the spider's egg but the other part's purposes are somewhat a mystery.
Photo Credit: Troy Alexander/Perunature.com
Photo Credit: Lary Reeves/Wired.com
As you can see these structures are deceptively small, only measuring about half a centimeter in diameter. Their discovery sparked much speculation and it wasn't until after astute observation that it was determined to belong to a small spider.
Photo Credit: Jeff Cremer/Perunature.com
This is one of the tiny hatched spiderlings. The egg sacks seemingly only contain one and sometimes two spiders. This is very counter-intuitive as most spiders lay many eggs and guard the sacks personally. The silkhenge spider seems to invest lots of time and effort to see a limited number of offspring born.
Photo Credit: Jeff Cremer/Perunature.com
This above photo shows a small mite near one of the egg structures. The researchers documented several occasions in which mites and ants were stuck to the outside of these structures.
Thanks for reading!
Akuda ( Zach)
Sources
https://www.wired.com/2013/12/web-tower-mystery-solved/
http://www.neatorama.com/spotlight/2014/01/03/What-Made-The-Strange-Web-Towers-In-The-Amazon/
Maybe like a fence to keep our other critters crawling around? Just speculating. Nature is so amazing!
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Yeah that's definitely my thought too!
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sometimes I think creatures like that have much more brain power than we think, very interesting article, thank you... did you see this video:
Isn't that amazing?
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It's not available in the US! But now you have my curiosity! I'm gonna find an alternative one to watch!
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maybe this one:
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This post has received a sweet gift of Dank Amps in the flavor of 5.43 % upvote from @lovejuice thanks to: @akuda. Vote for Aggroed!
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Next we'll be seeing little spiders building silk country homes to get away from their silk cities for the spider weekend.
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Rofl sounds adorable and terrifying for those arachnaphobs out there.
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I remember seeing these when they first discovered them, but I'd since forgotten it. Thanks for bringing it up. I don't want spiders like ON me, but I think they are ingenious.
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thinking of the amazon, maybe it is a fence to keep away other bugs, with some defense we cannot determine. I live in Colombia and the forests here are amazing. There was a 'new' mushroom discovered here in a 'dry' forest just this last year. So there are always new things to discover or things to be careful of.
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