Cobweb Spider

Description:

aka Mirror comb-footed spider / Stained-glass mirror spider - when i first sighted this mirror spider on a small leaf... its abdomen was silvery and reflecting light... creating a sparkle.! i was to learn later on that the silver seen across the mirror spiders abdomen is made of guanine (which is a by-product of the spiders digestion)... and instead of excreting all out into the environment through its poo... some of it excretes out onto the surface of the gut.! and as a result... the mirror spider is equipped with a pretty yet effective form of camouflage...which is particularly good in tropical areas where it rains more bcos rain drops also sparkle in the sun... and so the spider goes relatively unnoticed.! the deposits of guanine are often accumulated into large blobs... which often resemble a glittery mosaic... and when disturbed... the spider will contract its muscles across the top of the guanocytes (specialised cells)... which are structures on the outside of the gut that hold the guanine crystals.! when the muscles contract... the brown ‘skin’ of the gut contracts over the top of the guanocytes... partly hiding the silvery guanine crystals and giving out a stained-glass effect.!

Notes:

Araneae; Theridiidae; Spintharinae