A Guest in Our House (Platycryptus undatus)
I found this cute little brown jumping spider in our hallway today. It was not very active, so I thought that it may be molting or dying. I gently placed it in a glass container to rest, then later onto a sheet of white paper. On the first go round of 1-4x magnification, I noticed that its tiny abdomen looked a bit shriveled. It occurred to me that it may be dehydrated, so I saturated a piece of wet tissue paper with water and sure enough the "spidey" immediately crawled onto the wet paper and remained there sucking up the water, much like we would suck through a straw. Yes, spiders drink water, as needed, normally from rain puddles or dew. If spiders are kept as "pets" a small water dish can be placed in the habitat. The mouthparts are located in back of the chelicera (the fangs that inject venom into their prey). Spiders normally get the fluids they need from the liquified bodies of their prey, and it has recently been discovered that some species of spiders will "drink" nectar.
After, I gave the spider the water, it became more active, though I was still able to work with it to get another set of photos before releasing it onto one of our houseplants. This spider was 6mm in length and 2mm in width.
A Guest in Our House (Platycryptus undatus)
I found this cute little brown jumping spider in our hallway today. It was not very active, so I thought that it may be molting or dying. I gently placed it in a glass container to rest, then later onto a sheet of white paper. On the first go round of 1-4x magnification, I noticed that its tiny abdomen looked a bit shriveled. It occurred to me that it may be dehydrated, so I saturated a piece of wet tissue paper with water and sure enough the "spidey" immediately crawled onto the wet paper and remained there sucking up the water, much like we would suck through a straw. Yes, spiders drink water, as needed, normally from rain puddles or dew. If spiders are kept as "pets" a small water dish can be placed in the habitat. The mouthparts are located in back of the chelicera (the fangs that inject venom into their prey). Spiders normally get the fluids they need from the liquified bodies of their prey, and it has recently been discovered that some species of spiders will "drink" nectar.
After, I gave the spider the water, it became more active, though I was still able to work with it to get another set of photos before releasing it onto one of our houseplants. This spider was 6mm in length and 2mm in width.