Spot on Latrodectus?

darkness975

Latrodectus
Arachnosupporter +
Joined
Aug 31, 2012
Messages
5,610
Yeah, maybe the spot and her behaviour are unrelated, or maybe whatever that "dirt" is confused her for a while. Hm, maybe it's her own dropping that she left on the edge of a leaf or a strand of silk and she *oops* touched it by mistake before it dried? That would make anyone behave in a weird way for a while. :shifty: If that's what happened, then it's good to know that widow droppings are surprisingly free from bacteria.
Isn't their fecal matter white though?
 

schmiggle

Arachnoking
Joined
Nov 3, 2013
Messages
2,220
Yeah, maybe the spot and her behaviour are unrelated, or maybe whatever that "dirt" is confused her for a while. Hm, maybe it's her own dropping that she left on the edge of a leaf or a strand of silk and she *oops* touched it by mistake before it dried? That would make anyone behave in a weird way for a while. :shifty: If that's what happened, then it's good to know that widow droppings are surprisingly free from bacteria.
This is actually a pretty decent idea, I think. Wouldn't mean that there aren't any bacteria in it, just that she didn't autoinfect herself this time. That wouldn't surprise me that much, honestly.
Isn't their fecal matter white though?
Seems to me it might change color when it dries out.

I think it could also be bits of old prey, but that depends on whether widows just suck out the juices of their prey and leave intact exoskeletons or actually mash it up and make a sort of fleshball. In the latter case, there could be bits of exoskeleton and similar gunk lying around that she bumped into in the same way as a dropping.
 

darkness975

Latrodectus
Arachnosupporter +
Joined
Aug 31, 2012
Messages
5,610
This is actually a pretty decent idea, I think. Wouldn't mean that there aren't any bacteria in it, just that she didn't autoinfect herself this time. That wouldn't surprise me that much, honestly.

Seems to me it might change color when it dries out.

I think it could also be bits of old prey, but that depends on whether widows just suck out the juices of their prey and leave intact exoskeletons or actually mash it up and make a sort of fleshball. In the latter case, there could be bits of exoskeleton and similar gunk lying around that she bumped into in the same way as a dropping.
They leave a dried up shriveled husk that they discard from the web post feeding.
 

schmiggle

Arachnoking
Joined
Nov 3, 2013
Messages
2,220
Hm, I still don't think that's related to the spot, but I don't know what it's about. Might she be looking for a good spot to lay eggs? I don't know what that behavior looks like or how long you've had her. At this point someone with more experience with Lats probably ought to chime in, but I don't know who that might be.
 

darkness975

Latrodectus
Arachnosupporter +
Joined
Aug 31, 2012
Messages
5,610
Hm, I still don't think that's related to the spot, but I don't know what it's about. Might she be looking for a good spot to lay eggs? I don't know what that behavior looks like or how long you've had her. At this point someone with more experience with Lats probably ought to chime in, but I don't know who that might be.
They're all wild caught so in the end who knows.
 

The Snark

Dumpster Fire of the Gods
Old Timer
Joined
Aug 8, 2005
Messages
11,047
If you will excuse me for saying it, the abnormal is more likely found in the concerned animal keeper. "Hey boss, relax! I'm fine but I worry about you sometimes."
 

darkness975

Latrodectus
Arachnosupporter +
Joined
Aug 31, 2012
Messages
5,610
If you will excuse me for saying it, the abnormal is more likely found in the concerned animal keeper. "Hey boss, relax! I'm fine but I worry about you sometimes."
Not in this case.

The fact that one specimen was wandering endlessly for a good few hours while all the others did no such thing is cause for attention. The one specimen was all over the place, even leaving the web and walking across the substrate at various points in time.

Tonight I have witnessed no such behavior. While the strange yellow colored spot is still there the behavior appears to have reverted back to a more typical Latrodectus behavior that is usually found in the species. Hanging motionless near the center of the tangle web and at present feasting upon a banded cricket.
 

The Snark

Dumpster Fire of the Gods
Old Timer
Joined
Aug 8, 2005
Messages
11,047
The fact that one specimen was wandering endlessly for a good few hours while all the others did no such thing is cause for attention.
I don a different hat and offer you an alternative approach. You and Ms. Yellow splotch have chosen to walk a path together if only for a brief moment. Compassion and empathy transcend the boundaries of the mundane world and write their own rules.
 

darkness975

Latrodectus
Arachnosupporter +
Joined
Aug 31, 2012
Messages
5,610
I don a different hat and offer you an alternative approach. You and Ms. Yellow splotch have chosen to walk a path together if only for a brief moment. Compassion and empathy transcend the boundaries of the mundane world and write their own rules.
I do have empathy or else I would not have bothered to make this thread at all. I care immensely for all of these creatures and I deem it a tragedy to lose even one of them prematurely.
 

Cororon

Arachnoknight
Joined
Aug 8, 2018
Messages
268
I do have empathy or else I would not have bothered to make this thread at all. I care immensely for all of these creatures and I deem it a tragedy to lose even one of them prematurely.
I think The Snark said that tongue in cheek, and meant that maybe the spider and you connected empathically and were worrying together there for a while. :)
 

Cororon

Arachnoknight
Joined
Aug 8, 2018
Messages
268
Today not at all. Just acting normal.
That's good. Maybe it was just a temporary thing. Pet owners and also spider experts know a lot, but I think we have only scratched the surface so far and there's still a lot to learn about these critters. We can't communicate with spiders, so I'm sure there are many things we perhaps will never learn.

I'm thinking that maybe she worried about that yellow thing, like "this is not normal", and then calmed down. These spiders don't have the best short term memory, so maybe she noticed it again like a "new thing" again after a sleep or something, and worried again. I probably takes time for these spiders to remember that "this strange thing is nothing to worry about". I hope she feels better about it now.
 

The Snark

Dumpster Fire of the Gods
Old Timer
Joined
Aug 8, 2005
Messages
11,047
the spider and you connected empathically and were worrying together there for a while.
The travail of the soul as is found in the Upanishads. It is our interactions with other life forms, walking the same path together, that causes us to go beyond 'self' and in so doing become more aware of our reason for existence and place in the cosmos.
 

darkness975

Latrodectus
Arachnosupporter +
Joined
Aug 31, 2012
Messages
5,610
It was late at night and it is often difficult to separate jesting from criticism in the written word, particularly in a place like a forum.
 

The Snark

Dumpster Fire of the Gods
Old Timer
Joined
Aug 8, 2005
Messages
11,047
The one specimen was all over the place, even leaving the web and walking across the substrate at various points in time.
Maybe it was just a temporary thing. Pet owners and also spider experts know a lot, but I think we have only scratched the surface so far and there's still a lot to learn about these critters. We can't communicate with spiders, so I'm sure there are many things we perhaps will never learn.
Just rolling something around in my head. A jumble of noise from experts, pseudo experts and various observers. Please try to stay with me for a moment here.

At the handicapped riding stable. A wide spectrum of debilitations were often present. Behavior patterns. A common tool used in both psychological and physiological diagnostics. Two flavors; inherent, continuously present, and triggered. @darkness975 used the absence of a behavior pattern and a discoloration or FOD in the diagnostics. All well trodden established science there.
Then we have a gray area. Two clear examples out of many come to mind.
* A child of around 6 with a genetic disorder that was acting completely normal. A trigger hadn't fired.
* A normal child, 5 year old, that emulated the austistic people around him. Behavior emulation, common in children during their formative years.
In both cases the standard diagnostic tool, the behavioral pattern, would be wrong.

Further into the gray area, Normal behavior patterns can also require triggers that for an assortment of reasons have failed to fire. The subject can still be healthy.

A comment, maybe from a Prof at Cal Tech. "You can have all the numbers add up correctly and still be dead wrong."
 
Last edited:

darkness975

Latrodectus
Arachnosupporter +
Joined
Aug 31, 2012
Messages
5,610
Just rolling something around in my head. A jumble of noise from experts, pseudo experts and various observers. Please try to stay with me for a moment here.

At the handicapped riding stable. A wide spectrum of debilitations were often present. Behavior patterns. A common tool used in both psychological and physiological diagnostics. Two flavors; inherent, continuously present, and triggered. @darkness975 used the absence of a behavior pattern and a discoloration or FOD in the diagnostics. All well trodden established science there.
Then we have a gray area. Two clear examples out of many come to mind.
* A child of around 6 with a genetic disorder that was acting completely normal. A trigger hadn't fired.
* A normal child, 5 year old, that emulated the austistic people around him. Behavior emulation, common in children during their formative years.
In both cases the standard diagnostic tool, the behavioral pattern, would be wrong.

Further into the gray area, Normal behavior patterns can also require triggers that for an assortment of reasons have failed to fire. The subject can still be healthy.

A comment, maybe from a Prof at Cal Tech. "You can have all the numbers add up correctly and still be dead wrong."
I don't think it will ever be fully clear what was going on.
My biggest concern was really if whatever that yellow crap is would spread.
Given that these are wild caught who knows what they may have. Hopefully nothing. They all have laid at least 1 egg sack so that's a good sign.
 
Top