vayda on Nostr: 🚨 ARTHROPOD OF THE DAY 🚨 Assassin spiders, or sometimes called “pelican ...
🚨 ARTHROPOD OF THE DAY 🚨
Assassin spiders, or sometimes called “pelican spiders” are a rather rare group of spider-eating spiders. Their highly modified anatomy causes them to look like alien creatures, however these modifications do have a purpose: to catch and kill other spiders.
The Archaeid spiders have some bizarre features not found in other families of spiders: the long specialized mouthparts, two well-developed eyes, and a long “neck”.
Chelicerae are fang-bearing segments found in all spiders, used to inject the prey with venom. The extremely long chelicerae of the assassin spiders have developed a series of long spikes to keep the prey perfectly in place when grabbed.
The elongated neck area of these spiders is suggested to probably have evolved because of their diet, just like the long mouthparts. The longer the neck and chelicerae, the further the spider can reach to catch its fast prey. Looking at the long legs of assassin spiders, it is suggested they are not that fast; to compensate the body parts elongated.
Assassin spiders, or sometimes called “pelican spiders” are a rather rare group of spider-eating spiders. Their highly modified anatomy causes them to look like alien creatures, however these modifications do have a purpose: to catch and kill other spiders.
The Archaeid spiders have some bizarre features not found in other families of spiders: the long specialized mouthparts, two well-developed eyes, and a long “neck”.
Chelicerae are fang-bearing segments found in all spiders, used to inject the prey with venom. The extremely long chelicerae of the assassin spiders have developed a series of long spikes to keep the prey perfectly in place when grabbed.
The elongated neck area of these spiders is suggested to probably have evolved because of their diet, just like the long mouthparts. The longer the neck and chelicerae, the further the spider can reach to catch its fast prey. Looking at the long legs of assassin spiders, it is suggested they are not that fast; to compensate the body parts elongated.