Tag Archives: spiders

...and other stuff, BULLSHIT, FREE ADVICE, LIVES, PICTURE POEMS, READING MATTER, UNIVERSES

MIND-CONTROL PARASITES

March 12, 2024 LRS

An actual example from nature of a parasitic insect that uses “mind-control” to cause the host insect to change its normal behavior to the benefit of the parasite, is described in the PDF article below.

ABSTRACT: On the evening that it will kill its host, the orb-weaving spider Plesiometa argyra, the larva of the Ichneumonid wasp induces the spider to perform highly stereotyped construction behavior and build a ‘‘cocoon web’’ that is particularly well designed to support the wasp larva’s cocoon.

Here is a PDF file of a recent article written by William G. Eberhard which describes this phenomenon in detail: PARASITES CONTROL MIND

...and other stuff, ART, LIVES, READING MATTER, UNIVERSES

SPECTACULAR SPIDERS OF NICKY BAY

June 17, 2022 LRS

Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Spiders (order Araneae) are air-breathing arthropods that have eight legs and cheliceraewith fangs that inject venom. They are the largest order of arachnids and rank seventh in total species diversity among all other groups of organisms. Spiders are found worldwide on every continent except for Antarctica, and have become established in nearly every habitat with the exception of air and sea colonization. As of 2008, at least 43,678 spider species, and 109 families have been recorded.

VISIT THESE WEBSITES OF NICKY BAY TO SEE MORE SPIDERS (and other insects)!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/nickadel/sets/72157632977332646/

http://sgmacro.blogspot.com/

http://sgmacro.blogspot.com/2013/07/ultraviolet-fluorescence-in-spiders.html

...and other stuff, ART, LIVES, UNIVERSES

MULTIPLE POINTS OF VIEW

March 17, 2022 LRS

Republished by Blog Post Promoter

INSECTS SEE MORE MORE CLEARLY USING MULTIPLE POINTS OF VIEW….MAYBE WE CAN TOO?

“Compound and human eyes are essentially the same in some respect. The main difference is that compound eyes are made up of many individual eyes (called ommatidia), each forming its own image. Thus, the insect brain receives and processes many images and converts them into “pictures” made up of many pieces, like a puzzle. Compare it to watching a single scene on many screens showing slightly different perspectives. The image produced by each ommatidium is very small but collectively, an insect’s ommatidia can cover almost a 360-degree field of view, allowing good binocular vision in all directions, important for capturing prey and avoiding predators. They’re especially good at detecting motion, because images pass successively across the ommatidia. That’s why it’s so hard to sneak up on insects!

Insect vision surpasses human vision in several other ways. Insects can see well into the ultraviolet end of the light spectrum, to which we are completely blind. Insect eyes function well at different light intensities, including much lower intensities (i.e., darker conditions) than ours. Many insect eyes also can detect the plane of polarized light, which is useful for orientation on cloudy days.

Insects’ simple eyes are called ocelli, and they are more different from compound eyes than compound eyes are from human eyes. Many adult insects have two or three and some larvae have up to six. Each ocellus consists of up to 1000 or so sensory cells and a single lens. Ocelli respond to the intensity and direction of light but do not form images. They do form a highly sensitive and fast-reacting system that helps the insect preserve stability in flight.”