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Family - _TNY_5629

A female Acantholycosa lignaria wolf spider with the next generation clinging on to her abdomen.

 

Do you notice how the legs of the spiderlings are blue? That's because unlike us who have use the iron-based protein hemoglobin in our blood and which turn red when oxygenated, spiders use a copper-based protein called hemocyanin which turns blue instead. The legs of the spiderlings is so thin that the hemolymph (spider's equivalence to blood) is showing through it.

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Uploaded on February 9, 2017
Taken on July 20, 2015