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Project Noah Nature School
Opiliones, Triaenonychidae, Nuncia sp.
On turning over a large log I found 6 of these slow-moving, slightly translucent, spiders. They seemed to be associated with the fungal nodules seen in pic#3. Each about 20mm long they had pale tan chelicerae, a large rounded and high abdomen with a single dark spot towards the head, not much thorax to be seen - cephalothorax?
Underneath a large damp eucalyptus log in suburban back yard.
Weird but I like them. ..I turned the log again today Sep 11 and was amazed to find many many more. They were less developed than the previous ones and didn't have the 'button' just behind their heads. They also seemed to be very active around the white fungi which seemed less in quantity than before. I checked on the net and found some species do eat fungi - these might even have been 'farming' it. I also found their eggs this time. A few of the larger ones were guarding a natural crevice in the timber and inside were many clustered silver ball shaped eggs. 3 more pics added.
Spotted on Sep 3, 2012
Submitted on Sep 3, 2012
7 Comments
Interesting!
..I turned the log again today (Sep 11) and was amazed to find many many more. They were less developed than the previous ones and didn't have the 'button' just behind their heads. They also seemed to be very active around the white fungi which seemed less in quantity than before. I checked on the net and found some species do eat fungi - these might even have been 'farming' it. I also found their eggs this time. A few of the larger ones were guarding a natural crevice in the timber and inside were many clustered silver ball shaped eggs. 3 more pics added.... is it possible that these could be a loosely organised community?? I will check again in another week.
I found 2 other genus that looked good but the nuncia had the button on their backs..
They were varied degrees of pallidness. The first pic was possibly the most developed one. I felt pretty bad about exposing them to sunlight as they had obviously been in very dark and moist conditions. I'll check the NZ fungi work. Thanks martin.
Yes your ID looks close. Were they all this pallid color? It looks like freshly molted if it was only one of the six but they're probably already adults and not growing anymore. As with the fungi, it seems some useful research on these is being done in NZ.
This looks similar
http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/120...
Very cool spider and nice find!