#meshweavers

[razehider]

this Epistrophe's dramatic jesus christ on the cross/family guy death pose is a little baffling at first but a closer inspection reveals the sneaky Nigma puella responsible for it. you can probably imagine how to my naked eye it looked like this thing had stumbled upon a lethally poisonous marigold though

(May 4th, 2025)

[arachnophanatic]

Mesh web weaver (family Dictynidae)

[inatarachnids]

Black Laceweaver (Amaurobius ferox)

Observed by theinsectarena, CC BY-NC

[razehider]

dictynids exhibit a lot of quirky little social behaviors, so i wasn't surprised to find this little Nigma puella nuclear family under a leaf. i was even less surprised to see the male exit the silk shelter in a panic and leave the female and egg sac behind, not doing any favors to stereotypes about male spiders or straight fathers

(May 18th, 2025)

[razehider]

i've always envied dictynids like Nigma puella a little for how cozy their shelters look, at least if you ignore the miscellaneous dead flies scattered throughout. for them it's a positive though, i imagine in dictynid society they make fun of you for owning a home that's not covered in enough unidentifiable midges

(April 20th, 2025)