Fashion Update, Pt. 2 - _TNY_1214
Here's a juvenile raft spider (Dolomedes fimbriatus) on the leaf of the blackberry.
Righ next to this was the old moult which it has changed out of. In Pt. 1, both the spider and the moult are visible here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/48856414532/
Spiders, like all invertebrates have a hard exoskeleton which doesn't grow so instead, when the time comes, the old one bursts open and they leavi it dressed in the new - soft and pliable - skin which soon hardens. Getting out of it for a spider must be a little like removing one glove without using the other hand.
Fashion Update, Pt. 2 - _TNY_1214
Here's a juvenile raft spider (Dolomedes fimbriatus) on the leaf of the blackberry.
Righ next to this was the old moult which it has changed out of. In Pt. 1, both the spider and the moult are visible here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/48856414532/
Spiders, like all invertebrates have a hard exoskeleton which doesn't grow so instead, when the time comes, the old one bursts open and they leavi it dressed in the new - soft and pliable - skin which soon hardens. Getting out of it for a spider must be a little like removing one glove without using the other hand.