Friday 18 October 2013

Wrap-around Spider

Image: Robert Whyte
The Wrap-around Spider probably doesn't want to wrap its hairy self around your face! It was an accident and they take full responsibility for any distress which may have been caused.

Wrap-around Spiders belong to a genus called Dolophones. As far as I can tell, they mostly live in Australia.

Image: Bernard DUPONT
They're oddly flattened and spread out... splat-shaped, if you will. They even have a concave underside...

Image: ron_n_beth
The perfect shape for plastering themselves on twigs as they rest through daylight hours. They don't wrap themselves all the way around, but it certainly provides excellent camouflage against birds and the like. One Wrap-around Spider isn't content with looking like a mere part of a twig, they have a little turret on their abdomen so they look like a tiny twig all their own.

Image: Robert Whyte
Look at the little claws!
They wake up at night to build a web. Even a bit of twig needs to eat! As it turns out.

Image: Bernard DUPONT
In our green, sustainable, cybernetic future, when we access the internet through neural implants powered by propeller hats, we shall no longer wear gold rings. We'll need the gold for all the microchips, especially once the nanobot injections take off. Instead, our fingers will be clad in trained, jewel encrusted Wrap-around Spiders.

It'll be strange as our innards become increasingly technological and our adornments biological, but there's a lot to be said for standardised, stainless steel livers that can be easily produced, replaced and transplanted. Perhaps the fickleness of biology was more suited to fashion all along?

12 comments:

TexWisGirl said...

oh, they're cute! just in time for halloween... :)

Lear's Fool said...

They're made to hug!

Joseph JG said...

I love it when spiders get the appreciation they deserve!

Susan said...

And the force that molded this amazing creature was... Vision. Animals looking at other animals. Spider predators peering around for spiders over eons, and seeing them - or not seeing them.

Joseph JG said...

I think eyes are what you call a "disruptive technology". They change everything!

Unknown said...

R they poisonous

Joseph JG said...

@jack tucker: Venomous, yes, but I don't think they can hurt humans. Pretty much all spiders are venomous, but few of them harm people.

@Aisha Rivera: :P

Unknown said...

No thanks!

Joseph JG said...

Haha! :P

Joseph JG said...

Meanie!

Unknown said...

No

Unknown said...

Me too!