The mating rituals of the flower spider are the misomane clumsy. Spider bokhod

Spiders in our house are quite common. But we never think that this is only one type of huge detachment, numbering about 42,000 species.

Each of us knows that spiders weave cobwebs. But it turns out that not all varieties have the art of spinning.

Such individuals belong to bokohod spiders. They reach a size of just 1 cm.

Spider description

Body structure

In the body of the spider-bokhodov there are two parts connected by a small tube:

The cephalothorax (prosoma) has the following features:

• divided into head and thoracic;
• on the head are two pairs of limbs. Chelicera are supplied with poisonous glands and a claw for their allocation. Pedipalps are formed from six segments; in males, they are equipped with an apparatus for mating;
• 8 eyes are located on the frontal part, 2 of which are the main ones, the rest are additional;
• 4 pairs of limbs attached to the cephalothorax after pedipalps. The bokhoda spiders are able to move sideways due to the upturned front surfaces of the first two pairs of legs. With his movements he resembles a crab;
• the leg of a spider consists of several sections: a basin, a trochanter, a thigh, a calyx of a shin, a predap, a claw with a claw

Abdomen (opisthosome):

• oval shape;
• contains the main internal organs of the spider;
• located below the sexual opening.

Nutrition

Bokohody spiders are predators, they are not afraid to attack even insects larger than themselves. Spiders wait their prey for a long time, disguised as a terrain (flowers, soil, bark). Spider bokohody very mobile and with the appearance of the long-awaited profit quickly grab her feet, inject their paralyzing poison into the body of the victim. Then, after some time, all nutrients are sucked out of it, leaving one shell.

Breeding

The mating of bokhod spiders occurs at the beginning of summer and consists of the following stages:

1. The search for the female male, attracting attention. If the female has taken the advances of a gentleman, he climbs on her back.
2. The male moves to the female's sexual opening and introduces alternately pedipalps containing seminal fluid into it.
3. After a short break, the act of mating is repeated.
4. Cocoons female attaches on the stems or leaves of plants, hiding from predators.

Species

Bokohody spiders are terrestrial animals. There are everywhere on the globe. In warm climates, species diversity is much wider than in temperate and cold.

Spiders adapt to climatic conditions in various ways. One of them is coloring. All species of spider bokodov have their shade. This family has 170 genera, in which there are about 2,000 species. The most studied are the following types:

Flower Spider (Misutnena vatia)

• coloring is white, yellowish;
• body size up to 11 mm;
• lives on flowers of the buttercup family, nivyanikovykh;
• food: butterflies, bumblebees, bees;
• habitat: Europe, North America.

Yellow Crab Spider (Xisticus luctuosus)

• the body of the male is dark brown, 4–5 mm long, the female is yellow, 7–8 mm;
• lives in meadows and forest glades;
• common in the European part of Russia and the former USSR.

Cinema Decorated (Synaema ornatum)

the color is contrasting: the bottom of the abdomen is black, the top is red or yellow with a black angular spot;

• male body length 5-6 mm, females - 7-8 mm;
• lives on flowers of the Rosaceae family;
• eats insects;
• lives in the steppe and forest-steppe of our country.

Human benefits

Little spiders can bring huge benefits to humans. Spiders are very voracious.

In one day, bokohod spiders are able to eat food that weighs more than their body.

The bulk of the feed is flies, which are a breeding ground for many harmful bacteria.

The poison of spiders-bokohodov in the future plan to use as pesticides.

Pests of agricultural land become common prey for the spider-bokhod:, meadow moth, Diptera, creeper, aphids, bedbugs, weevils.

In medicine, studies are conducted on the poison of spiders for the treatment of arrhythmias, Alzheimer's disease, erectile dysfunction, stroke.

What to do when you bite

Spiders-bokhody for humans are not dangerous, but their bite is still unpleasant following symptoms:

• redness, swelling, itching and burning of the bite site;
• headache;
• dizziness;
• weakness.

When a spider-bochod is bitten, it is enough to apply ice to the wound and take antihistamines. Place the bite can be treated with balm "Star" or Fenistil-gel.

Often we take spiders for common insects, but this is wrong. They have at their disposal poisonous glands containing toxins. All kinds of bokhod spiders should be handled carefully to avoid discomfort caused by the bites of these crumbs.

Spider Crab or Bochod Spider is a generic name used for many species of spiders, but most of them are members of the Thomisidae family. Most often, these include the usual “flower crabs spiders”, although not all members of this vast family are limited to hunting from an ambush on flowers.

The main feature of the spider-bokhoda - limbs. The first two pairs of legs are much larger than the last two pairs, which makes them look like crabs. Most of them are smooth, their bodies devoid of hair, with the exception of a few species. Limbs like a crab allow the spider to move forward, backward or sideways. They all have eight eyes, in two rows of four in each, at the front edge of the head. Their eyes are usually surrounded by a ring of white pigment. The middle eyes are independent of each other, and freely rotate in different directions. There are stray hunters among them, but most are known as ambush predators.

These species are not active hunters, just sit and wait for prey, extracting the maximum benefit from their disguise. Some species sit on, or near flowers, fruits, where the likelihood of insects is most likely. Usually the color of the spider-bokhodov adapted to the area where the hunt is conducted. There are green, yellow, white, brown and gray. They remain motionless until the victim comes close enough. If they themselves are hiding in flowers, then the belly just looks like a bud.

Some species, such as, for example, Misumena vatia, are able to change color within a few days, according to the flower on which they sit. There are those who often occupy positions among the leaves or bark, where they are waiting for prey, it is almost impossible to see them there, they just look like a growth on a tree. There are ambush spiders such that wait quietly in the open air, their coloring allows to depict bird droppings with amazing accuracy. The spider from the aphantochilidae family has also recently been included in this species, because they imitate the ants that they hunt.

There are crabs that hunt in the cracks of tree trunks or beneath the bark, where they find a place to live, where they spend the whole day, and only go out at night for prey. Members of the genus Xysticus hunt in the forest floor on the ground. In any case, all these ambush spiders use their powerful forepaws to capture and hold prey, until the poisonous bites that paralyze them start to act.

It is not known how much they are dangerous for a person, while there are not very many people who want to keep them as pets. However, this genus is closely related to the six-eyed spider and the recluse spider, and also poisonous, but there have been few cases of human bites and they have been recorded. Just because a spider man will not attack, if not to disturb him. None of the spider crabs bother to weave nets and build traps for food, although they all produce a silk thread when it falls and for reproductive purposes. Females prepare a bag for eggs, folding it from the leaves, then laying it in it and guarding it, and later growing up spiders.

We have an unusual spider. Not only does he not weave a web, it is also a chameleon spider that can change its color depending on the environment. This is about flower spideror scientifically mizumena clubfoot   (lat. Misumena vatia). As the name implies, this spider hunts, waiting for its prey (pollinating insects) on flowers. It succeeds in disguising itself due to its color - this spider is white, but, in the case of hunting for yellow flowers, it can change color to yellow. This is how females of this species look like. Males are much smaller and darker in color. I happened to observe the following scene: among the flowers of the bird cherry, a large white spider caught prey - a yellow-necked mosquito. Like many other species of spiders, the male of the flower spider is much smaller than the female, and can be accidentally confused with prey. Other spiders come out of this situation, bringing a gift in the form of web-packed prey, here the male sneaks up to the female while she is busy with a caught mosquito. And while the "bride" is busy with dinner, the "groom" manages to straddle the belly of the female.

Flower spider   (lat. Misumena vatia) or mizumena clubfoot   - type of spider family spider bokhody (Thomisidae). Males and females of this species look different. Scientifically, this separation is called sexual dimorphism.

Males are 4 mm long, while females are up to 10 mm long. The male cephalothorax (prosoma) is blackish in color, the abdomen (opistosome) is white to yellowish in color with two dark long stripes. Both front pairs of legs with wide stripes of black and brown, both back pairs of legs of the main color of the abdomen.

In females, the color of the whole body varies from bright yellow to yellow-green and white. Often on the sides of the abdomen there are two long red stripes. The species is distributed from the Arctic to the subtropical zones of the Holarctic, from Ireland and Portugal to Japan, as well as from Alaska to the southern border of the United States. With the exception of Iceland, the species inhabits all of Europe. The species inhabits open habitats with a large number of flowering plants. Sexually mature spiders can occur from May to July.

A spider lurks its prey on flowers. It can change its color depending on the color of flowers. Only sexually mature females have this ability. They control the change in body pigmentation with their organs of vision. When stained in the yellow color in the cells of the epidermis enters the liquid, yellow dye, when stained in white, the pigment is transferred to the inside of the body. A yellow pigment can stand out with a long stay on white flowers also with a bowel movement.

Flower spiders are predators; they are not afraid to attack even insects larger than themselves. Spiders wait their prey for a long time, disguised as a terrain (flowers). Very mobile and with the appearance of a long-awaited profit, they quickly grab it with their feet, inject their paralyzing poison into the body of the victim. Then, after some time, all nutrients are sucked out of it, leaving one shell.

The prey of the flower spider is various pollinating insects, for example, hoverflies, bees, wasps, butterflies or small beetles. They are often an order of magnitude larger than the spider itself. The spider grasps its prey with strong, widely spaced front legs and lightly bites to the head. Web not spins.

Mating occurs in early summer. When the male finds the female, he climbs in front of her back. Then he moves to the abdominal side of the female and, in the abdomen-to-abdomen position, alternately inserts his pedipalps into the female's sexual opening. Then he again climbs on the back of the female, so that after a break he can mate with her again. In the end, the male leaves the female. The cocoons of eggs are hidden secretly from the sides of the flowers. Young spiders winter in the ground.