Adventure Ausrama Blog

  Long legs do not necessarily mean living longer. | ▶ | articles stories news paragraph furniture gadgets fixtures trappings things provisions articles up stories on news appurtenances stock impediments ear attachment rig accessories and articles at stories it news material pad apparatus utensils contrivances appliances kit tools articles as stories in news shebang teams setup contraptions machinery vestiges equipage articles an stories go outfit display belongings tackle furnishings baggage read sets articles article habiliments ornaments words Attachments provisioning devices fittings taking accompaniments collections kaboodle stuff listen fashion traps gadget writing facilities array | trapdoor in spider of declining | ◀ |                    Times are a changin', as the saying goes. And it is not always for the best. Trapdoor spiders are getting fewer in South Australia. They balance the ecosystem, so their loss is a bad thing.  If they do not eat beetles, for example,  the

One of Australia's best-lmown spiders is the Redback Spider Latrodectus hasseltii , a close relative of America's Black Widow Spider.  It is easily identified by the wonderfully striking orange/red slash on its glossy black (sometimes brown) body.  The Redback Spider was immortalised in Slim Newton’s 1972 hit song Redback on the Toilet Seat:                     There was a Redbnck on the toilet seat                        When I was there last night,                        I didn't see him in the dark but boy                        I felt his bite. It Probably wasn't a male spider that bit the man in the toilet. Only the female that bites. A male redback is only about a tenth of the female's size.  He has fangs but they usually can't penetrate human skin. Redbacks spin their webs in dry sheltered areas under rocks or logs. They also frequent human places - under eaves, floorboards, garden sheds, in junk piles, gardens and the outdoor dunny!  Their

Spider webs are advanced pieces of evolutionary engineering. They are also collecting vats for what lives in the neighborhood. The DNA of what a spider had for dinner remains on the web for months. Silk from spiders webs is in demand for potential pest management, conservation, biodiversity monitoring and biogeography. It is a natural source of accumulated data and analysis of it is informative. If the DNA makeup of a web changes then something is wrong. In the tests, black widow spiders were kept alive by feeding them with crickets. When a spider died its DNA remained on the web for 88 days. In the wild, the net of the web catches insects, small animals and flora debris. Going out and getting some web silk is proving to be a valuable way of monitoring changes in spider populations, particularly when new species move into an area. Importantly, an eye can be kept on those on the endangered list. The method is only good for small animals because large ones take the whole web wit

If you want to see weird animals go visit Australia. Most animals are spread throughout the world but Australian marsupials stay strictly at home on this "lost continent". Two hundred kinds of marsupials live only in Australia the kangaroo being the most commonly known. When the platypus was first taken to England scientists of the day said it was a hoax, a made up animal. The koala seemed to be a cuddly bear. Unfortunately wild koalas can be very nasty and do not take kindly to being picked up. So aligned to its environment, the Tasmanian Tiger soon became extinct with the arrival of Europeans. Besides marsupials, other creatures make life difficult for people living on this continent. Red back and funnel web spiders are dangerous. The box jellyfish also causes much pain to humans. Small animals have died from their sting. Don't let the presence of these put you off from a visit to this great country. Oh, I nearly forgot; crocodile lives up north. http://www.adventur

Is it safe to go out? Well maybe not. A spider was seen eating a bird in Cairns, north Queensland. The golden orb weaver spider usually eats insects. It is a step up for it to consume a bird. The bird had flown into the spider's web and become weak. Then the spider attacked it. Golden orb spiders grow much larger than the one shown in the photograph. Though they were not thought capable of eating a whole bird. http://www.adventure--australia.blogspot.com/ http://www.tysaustralia.blogspot.com/ http://www.feeds.feedburner.com/AdventureAustralia http://www.technorati.com/blogs/ http://adventure--australia.blogspot.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Science