Random Thought of the Day

Quote: rxwine

It can be dangerous when someone is riding backwards in a boat and gives the spider an unexpected ride. Or funny.

Video about spiders who can build a web across a creek or a river.

Quote: Pacomartin

Video about spiders who can build a web across a creek or a river.

Kind of amazing really.

Quote: kenarman

Not sure that is right this quote is from National Geographic.

"Black widows are solitary year-round except during this violent mating ritual. These spiders spin large webs in which females suspend a cocoon with hundreds of eggs. ... Black widow spiders also use their webs to ensnare their prey, which consists of flies, mosquitoes, grasshoppers, beetles, and caterpillars."

black widows I think either have a silken lair or a tangled half-ass web - not a proper web builder, maybe there is a term for that; certainly they use a lair

stay tuned and I'll try to look it up

OK, looks like I should use the term Orb Web spider for the ones not poisonous; the type of web that might be out in the open so you walk into it or something, or see very visibly. 3 scientific families.

Black widows belong to family Theridiidae, wikipedia describes webs: "Theridiidae is a large family of spiders, also known as the tangle-web spiders, cobweb spiders and comb-footed spiders. The diverse family includes over 2,200 species ... spiders that often build tangle space webs...."

so I see a suggestion with "cob-web" that in the world you may have poisonous web builders [or not] but in the US I will still say none if you can accept this particular concept of a web builder, Orb web I guess ... not that many poisonous spiders in the US anyway

Quote: odiousgambit

black widows I think either have a silken lair or a tangled half-ass web - not a proper web builder,

The ones we were infested with, built close to an object, [like the freezer] and the main web was suspended where it was by guy wire type suspension.

The Orb spiders here are called that because they build their webs, orbitally. They start each evening just before dusk and build their web by going round and round in ever greater circles with stays in between circles. They are really fun to watch. I was told and it appears that they have a short time to catch food when the other bugs come out at dusk. Then they eat, and take their webs down before full light in the morning. One of my walk paths, I always check to catch them building.

Other poisonous spiders here in Az, may not build webs, but there is no shortage of poisonous spiders. When I lived in the PNW we left spiders alone because they were beneficial. Here in Az., its pretty safe to assume that a spider is not my friend.

/pedantry

If you bite it and you die, it's poisonous. If it bites you and you die, it's venomous.

/pedantry off

I've found no end to the entertainment watching web spiders work. Can't say I've ever seen these cob types actually make one, but the typical spider web is a marvel to watch being built. Don't only take but 10 minutes, either. Bing bang boom up and down the support wires tappin' their ass every so often using god knows what kind of inputs, but sure enough, all lines just find their way into being right where they need to be. And watching how they keep a toe on the main lines, and how they react to any twitch in these lines. They'll feel the first twitch and always somehow turn so they're facing the exact quadrant they need to be in. Another twitch and they're down like a shot, shootin' and spinnin' up their lunch. God, I killed sooo many hours in retail sitting outside the shop just watching them for hours. It's always great fun, especially when you find bigger moths for them to duke it out with.

Quote: Face

/pedantry

If you bite it and you die, it's poisonous. If it bites you and you die, it's venomous.

/pedantry off

Good point,

datum is the singular of data

Quote: Face

If you bite it and you die, it's poisonous. If it bites you and you die, it's venomous.

The Navy used to call this a "flaming datum" in WWII. The "datum" referred to the coordinates of the location of an enemy submarine. Initially in the war, the Nazi submarines were so difficult to find, that they could only tell when a submarine was when a convoy ship was sinking in flames. Hence the phrase "flaming datum".

I spent some time trying to find out what is meant by 'cobweb' and I have to say it can pretty much just mean any 'spiderweb' but a definition like the one below seems to kind of be it if something specific is meant, from wiktionary:

cobweb (plural cobwebs)

A spiderweb, or the remains of one, especially an asymmetrical one that is woven with an irregular pattern of threads.
One of its filaments; gossamer
(figuratively) Something thin and unsubstantial, or flimsy and worthless; rubbish.

Always thought cobweb came from a spider's web which had been originally woven on cob but had been abandoned, so that it was nothing but the thin dust covered strands of something that no longer functioned because even the spider had abandoned it. Since 'cob' was often the construction material of a basement it became 'cobweb' rather than simply 'web'.

Quote: Pacomartin

datum is the singular of data.

Yes. Though I think that it has turned into a situation similar to forum and forums instead of forum and fora. A situation where correct usage by the educated has been supplanted by the incorrect usage of the hoi poloi.

So the flaming datum was simply an agreed upon value that became relevant as a starting point and gained prominence once the next ship was struck so that then a course and distance could be established. I think the term came into usage during WWtwo when no one really knew what to do when a convoy was attacked until a man put some Naval Officers into a darkened room and sent in written notes of events that included "periscope sightings' and 'signal traffic' as well as explosions reported by insufficiently identified ships at uncertain locations. It was the studies from that room that lead to standardized escort responses to events such as 'periscope sighted' to 'explosion'