Regenerating Spider
On the fourth of the month, I do a mini-BioBlitz around the farm, and see how many species I can find in an hour or two. Yesterday, one of the things I noticed was bark peeling off a dead tree, and on closer inspection I saw this spider.
Spider on dead pine tree.
Looking at the pictures on my computer, I noticed that one of its legs was shorter and much smoother than the others. I looked it up, and apparently spiders can regenerate their legs!
(And that link is to one of my favorite blogs on macro photography — a very informative post on macro equipment is here.)
The regenerated leg.
Comparison of front legs.
Looking again, I saw that its left front leg seems to have fewer sections than its right front leg, so possibly that has regenerated too.
I should have made sure to get a good picture of its eyes — patterns of eye arrangement help you identify spiders. I think this is in the wolf spider family but I am not sure.
BugGuide.net has more info on regeneration, and here is another one with a regenerated leg.
Very cool. Never knew that.
Me either! I didn’t know if it had regrown or maybe was some kind of mutation.
A mutated spider. Sounds a comic or a film script in it! #spiderman
Brilliant! I wouldn’t mind regenerating a few of my body parts when necessary!
Or conversely, being able to shed a few areas at will. 🙂