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I'm loving all these spider articles that have cropped up on hacker news and elsewhere [0]-[4]. I used to be deathly afraid of spiders, but all these articles

I'm loving all these spider articles that have cropped up on hacker news and elsewhere [0]-[4]. I used to be deathly afraid of spiders, but all these articles and videos over the years have eliminated my fear of them. I like having some around. [0]: The extraordinary life and death of the world's oldest known spider - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16992596 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16992596 [1]: Spiders eat an astronomical amount of insects - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15887468 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15887468 [2]: How spiders fly - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17398383 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17398383 [3]: How I ended up with pet jumping spiders - https://medium.com/@melissamcewen/how-i-ended-up-with-pet-jumping-spiders-187d70a3e296 https://medium.com/@melissamcewen/how-i-ended-up-with-pet-ju... [4]: Lucas the spider - https://www.youtube.com/user/joshuaslice https://www.youtube.com/user/joshuaslice

nickpsecurity 8y ago
The jumping/portia spiders are the coolest. Cracked.com had an article on diabolical insects with them featured in it. http://www.cracked.com/article_109_natures-6-most-diabolical-predators.html http://www.cracked.com/article_109_natures-6-most-diabolical... I'll excerpt the relevant part for folks that are squeamish or at work given Cracked is a bit NSFW: "Each individual Portia employs their own unique and vast arsenal of dastardly impersonations to trick, ensnare and consume their prey. A Portia spider might strum a pattern on a strand to impersonate the buzzing of a fly caught in another spider's web, while a different spider of the same exact species might opt to catch a real fly to throw in the web and, while the prey spider is distracted, sneak up behind it. It may pretend to be inanimate by moving only in the wind, it may observe and duplicate another spider's entire mating ritual or sometimes it might even build a complete web of its own that attaches to its victim's, thereby creating a trap out of the spider's own trap." They're just too friggin' smart! I make sure nobody squashes them at my house so they do their important work of eating other spiders. One time I watched one do a nice ambush. Target spider had a web in the corner it almost always sat on. The invisible, jumping spider apparently waited until the target descended from its web to (I guess) start extending it. Jumping spider ran out of nowhere full-speed across ceiling, jumped past web onto that single strand, and started climbing down at spider. Brief battle ensued. The jumping spider was literally sitting between the target's ass and web with nowhere for it to go. It dropped a few inches to create distance. Then, just cut its own supporting line to drop off the ceiling abandoning its original web. Jumping spider climbed back up it going back where it came from. Fun to watch.
- greenhatman 8y ago
  I loved watching this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDtlvZGmHYk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDtlvZGmHYk
stronglikedan 8y ago
> I like having some around. As long as they don't make webs and aren't aggressive, such as Wolf Spiders, then they're okay by me.
- sundvor 8y ago
  I like huntsmen, myself (alas wife does not). They're rather mean looking but otherwise mostly harmless - to humans, but definitely not all other kinds of bugs. This would make them most excellent house guests. :)
  - wool_gather 8y ago
    For the same reason, I have made my peace with house centipedes. My friends object that the way they move is horrifyingly creepy. I can't disagree; they are speedy little undulating aliens. But I'd rather have one of them scuttering around than silverfish eating my books. I actually rescued a centipede that had gotten trapped in my kitchen sink the other week.
    - sundvor 8y ago
      Nice! We're so set on destroying everything where we settle, it's good to hear examples of the opposite (however small).
pierrec 8y ago
I'm sure any programmer who's spent enough time watching spiders build their webs must have given some thought to the algorithmic simulation of spiderweb construction. Different species create different structures, and some of them are excellent architects. I remember scouring the web for any programs doing this, and there are definitely research papers and MATLAB or similar implementations, but surprisingly little outside of that. It seems like a fun little project to explore this in a more accessible language/platform, eg. in-browser.
- jonbaer 8y ago
  Some interesting papers @ http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/~jer/spider.pdf http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/~jer/spider.pdf + https://www.inf.ed.ac.uk/publications/thesis/online/IM000101.pdf https://www.inf.ed.ac.uk/publications/thesis/online/IM000101... - worth exploring, interesting to think they optimize on their own ... https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms8038 https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms8038
hanoz 8y ago
May I contribute: Peacock Spiders https://m.youtube.com/watch?t=1m19s&v=d_yYC5r8xMI https://m.youtube.com/watch?t=1m19s&v=d_yYC5r8xMI

nickpsecurity 8y ago

The jumping/portia spiders are the coolest. Cracked.com had an article on diabolical insects with them featured in it. http://www.cracked.com/article_109_natures-6-most-diabolical-predators.html http://www.cracked.com/article_109_natures-6-most-diabolical... I'll excerpt the relevant part for folks that are squeamish or at work given Cracked is a bit NSFW: "Each individual Portia employs their own unique and vast arsenal of dastardly impersonations to trick, ensnare and consume their prey. A Portia spider might strum a pattern on a strand to impersonate the buzzing of a fly caught in another spider's web, while a different spider of the same exact species might opt to catch a real fly to throw in the web and, while the prey spider is distracted, sneak up behind it. It may pretend to be inanimate by moving only in the wind, it may observe and duplicate another spider's entire mating ritual or sometimes it might even build a complete web of its own that attaches to its victim's, thereby creating a trap out of the spider's own trap." They're just too friggin' smart! I make sure nobody squashes them at my house so they do their important work of eating other spiders. One time I watched one do a nice ambush. Target spider had a web in the corner it almost always sat on. The invisible, jumping spider apparently waited until the target descended from its web to (I guess) start extending it. Jumping spider ran out of nowhere full-speed across ceiling, jumped past web onto that single strand, and started climbing down at spider. Brief battle ensued. The jumping spider was literally sitting between the target's ass and web with nowhere for it to go. It dropped a few inches to create distance. Then, just cut its own supporting line to drop off the ceiling abandoning its original web. Jumping spider climbed back up it going back where it came from. Fun to watch.

greenhatman 8y ago
I loved watching this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDtlvZGmHYk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDtlvZGmHYk

stronglikedan 8y ago

> I like having some around. As long as they don't make webs and aren't aggressive, such as Wolf Spiders, then they're okay by me.

sundvor 8y ago
I like huntsmen, myself (alas wife does not). They're rather mean looking but otherwise mostly harmless - to humans, but definitely not all other kinds of bugs. This would make them most excellent house guests. :)
- wool_gather 8y ago
  For the same reason, I have made my peace with house centipedes. My friends object that the way they move is horrifyingly creepy. I can't disagree; they are speedy little undulating aliens. But I'd rather have one of them scuttering around than silverfish eating my books. I actually rescued a centipede that had gotten trapped in my kitchen sink the other week.
  - sundvor 8y ago
    Nice! We're so set on destroying everything where we settle, it's good to hear examples of the opposite (however small).

pierrec 8y ago

I'm sure any programmer who's spent enough time watching spiders build their webs must have given some thought to the algorithmic simulation of spiderweb construction. Different species create different structures, and some of them are excellent architects. I remember scouring the web for any programs doing this, and there are definitely research papers and MATLAB or similar implementations, but surprisingly little outside of that. It seems like a fun little project to explore this in a more accessible language/platform, eg. in-browser.

jonbaer 8y ago
Some interesting papers @ http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/~jer/spider.pdf http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/~jer/spider.pdf + https://www.inf.ed.ac.uk/publications/thesis/online/IM000101.pdf https://www.inf.ed.ac.uk/publications/thesis/online/IM000101... - worth exploring, interesting to think they optimize on their own ... https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms8038 https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms8038

hanoz 8y ago

May I contribute: Peacock Spiders https://m.youtube.com/watch?t=1m19s&v=d_yYC5r8xMI https://m.youtube.com/watch?t=1m19s&v=d_yYC5r8xMI