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Project Noah Nature School
Stegodyphus sp.
This Velvet Spider had been living on my front screen door for several weeks (see spotting: http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/726...) and one morning I woke up to find this ?? emerging from its back. Three hours after I first spotted the spider, all that was left of it was Pic 5. Pic 6 shows what had dropped from the spider. ???
spotted in my house, on a screen door to a desert garden
Pics 1 & 2: 6:15 am Pics 3 & 4: 7:20 am Pics 5 & 6: 9:18 am
Spotted on Aug 28, 2014
Submitted on Feb 8, 2015
5 Comments
I also remember reading about the wasp and zombie-spider! Fascinating. And lots to research now. I wonder if the spider is in pain when the parasite is inside? It definitely looks painful as it makes it way out! I've only started to appreciate spiders since I joined PN...so the fact that I actually took photos of this leaves me impressed with myself. :-)
well, what I read..said it was a nematode....spiders are hosts to parasitoids and I remember reading about a wasp that controls the spider's web-building ability and turns it into a zombie...this one looked like a worm...so maybe nematode? Definitely a parasite emerging...poor spider...what an end. Fabulous photography and it reminded me of those Alien movies...Species and all. You were lucky to have been there camera in hand when it happened...
Thank you both! Interesting vid, Sukanya Datta. Definitely freakish. Do you think this is a type of parasitic worm?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/11...
interesting that I read this and then, saw your spotting....which is fantastic...mind boggling...pretty freakish too.
Whoa! You did well to capture that!