[PatrickHenry]

Okay, so it's a bit creepy. Everybody be nice.

[PatrickHenry]

Evolution Ping The List-O-Links

A conservative, pro-evolution science list, now with over 390 names. See the list's explanation, then FReepmail to be added or dropped. To assist beginners: But it's "just a theory", Evo-Troll's Toolkit, and How to argue against a scientific theory.

[Andy from Beaverton]

[Coyoteman]

Cool!

[e_castillo]

I had one hanging upside down on my back porch the past spring. He stayed there for a day then moved on.

[Kimmers]

Because of Steve Irwin enthusiasticly educating me about different species including Tarantula's I held one when I had the opportunity.....If one could hold air that would be the best way to describe it

[Dog Gone]

I think it's important to determine whether this is unique to tarantulas.

My guess is that it is, or at least only with any closely related species with thick legs.

My gut instinct is this is something that benefits only thick-legged spiders, although that doesn't prove who came first.

[ruthles]

We're the spider family right now. My son's doing a book report for his fourth grade te4acher, and my daughter's reading Charlotte's Web--a great story with some truth and contrived facts about spiders. Thanks for the info.

[KoRn]

The Tarantula has to be one of the coolest spiders. I wish I had a few loose around my house, as they tend to get rid of much less than desirable life forms. Thanks for posting this!

[phoenix0468]

“It could mean that silk production actually originated in the feet to increase traction, with the diversity of spinneret silk evolving later.”

PH, you think locomotion is evolutionarily more important than foraging? I would think that the use of silk to create webs that can catch prey would be a more important evolutionary event; the use of silk as a means of locomotion being a next step to better situate the means of ambush, not the other way around. This can actually be supported by the fact that some species of spider create ground traps with silk rather than create webs that are arial.

[labette]

Related article, {sort of}

[grey_whiskers]

Jumping to conclusions.

In order to show that "diversity of silk" into webs only happened *after* the spinning of silk from the feet for traction, it would have to be shown that the spinnarets on the feet predate the spinnarets on the, err, posterior orifice region.

Did the article get into that?

Cheers!

[Ichneumon]

Meanwhile, caterpillars (of both butterflies and moths) produce silk from their heads, near their mouths.

[Doctor Stochastic]

Yeah, but can they spin nylons?

[verum ago]

***stares at feet and sighs***

[sully777]

@

[SunkenCiv]

That doesn't explain the tarantula's preference for knee-highs.