Why a spider isn't hungry

The Snark

Dumpster Fire of the Gods
Old Timer
Joined
Aug 8, 2005
Messages
11,046
This is from a conversation some time ago where a PhD biologist, a hot shot computer programmer and another PhD in behavioral science all chimed in. They made a solid case in their explanations but the details coming thick and fest left me drowning in the soup.
So why not toss this out to you AB brains to chew on and maybe better explain it to me in the process?

Spiders (among other animals) do not have the sophisticated biology that humans have. They are closer to machines. The have no thinking, rationalizing capable brains. Computer programmer chimed in here comparing a rudimentary array of transistors capable of adding and subtracting numbers compared to a modern quantum computer capable of predicting which numbers are likely to be input to add or subtract from and he lost me in the details.

Conclusion-> spiders don't have blood sugar levels where they feel not hungry, slightly hungry and on out to ravenous. It's on or off. Is or isn't. No pancreas having chats with brain function area Hunger analysis and regulating blood sugar levels. This function-system is only found in vertebrates.

So what causes a spider to Hunt, search for food, Acquire prey, and Eat. Bio guy and Behavioral gal got into a lengthy discussion here. What I derived is in a human those three work in concert with a whole lot of sophisticated neurons getting in on things. I got lost in the wash cycle. Computer guy notices, reminds me to think primitive computer. On or off. Ones and zeros.

Conclusion-> Hunting is a primal function. There is no neural interface, a something something synaptic network connecting the primal function with the rest of the system. A spider will hunt, hungry or not.

Acquiring food, catching prey. Just another primal function but usually split into two with function 1 calling function 2. 1- Prey has been captured. 2-Do something with it. Machine function 2 kicks in, wrapping or wrangling the food item. Hunger is not involved. It is an entirely different function. Food is wrapped and packaged, said and done. Spider may call function 3, Eat, or just go about it's other spider businesses. No mouth watering as human buys that hamburger and the closely related brain function of shoving it in his mouth with the blood sugars, endocrine system, the pancreas, and a few zillion neurons having a discussion. In spider they are all primitive unrelated functions and something something synapses are not present.

And Eat. This is where bio-science guy left me in the dust on the horizon with his technical explanations. The jist was the eat function is the largest, most sophisticated system in the spider. From protiens and enzymes in the venom, more cheicals in the mouth, the stomach, intestines, bowel and the exhaust port, all with different autonomic functions. Using the law of probability, this is where natural selection enters into things. If there is some sort of defect in the spider it is most likely to happen here. From infant mortality to unthriftyness, where the majority of the defects get removed from the gene pool. The ability to convert prey into the required nutrients the overwhelming factor in species survival. If the environment is wrong or borderline, it will be most noticeable here, Thus the reason why certain species are found in certain locales and not simply sprayed all over the maps.

If anyone cares to leap in here and clarify some of this it would be greatly appreciated.
 
Last edited:

Edan bandoot

Arachnoprince
Joined
Sep 5, 2019
Messages
1,602
Hunt Acquire prey Eat Hunting Acquiring food, catching prey. Eat

glad i got all the important information :troll:
 

The Snark

Dumpster Fire of the Gods
Old Timer
Joined
Aug 8, 2005
Messages
11,046
@Edan bandoot Yups. I'm glad my former boss, micro-B - genetics and real big on Darwin wasn't there. I would never have got out of the gate.
 
Last edited:

JumpingSimon

Arachnopeon
Joined
Jul 13, 2021
Messages
47
I don’t care… :rofl:
To me spiders are very much little personalities with tiny thoughts and tiny feelings :p
 
Top