#toxeus

[overdoso]

Toxeus maxillosus é uma aranha da família , que é uma família de aranhas saltadoras que possuem corpo semelhante ao de uma formiga. Possui corpo pequeno com abdômen oval sem constrição.

[crevicedwelling]

spiny, long-legged, and armored, Polyrhachis ants are a common sight in Singapore as they forage for their colonies in a perpetual breakneck sprint. but this creature is no Polyrhachis: this is a jumping spider that looks and moves exactly like one!

he is Toxeus maxillosus*, one of the finest ant mimics I’ve seen.

an elongated first set of legs mime questing antennae while the rest are perfectly sized to match Polyrhachis’ gait. his enlarged chelicerae appear like an ant’s head, and the illusion is completed by pedipalps slung beneath like ant mandibles.

unfortunately I didn’t get a good still photo of the red-rumped Polyrhachis armata that he mimicked. however, a neighboring shrub housed another T. maxillosus who sported a shiny coat of gold hair in the style of Polyrhachis illaudata, a worker of which was also sitting there. side-by side, the mimicry is simply exquisite.

*at least, I think the black and red form is also considered T. maxillosus. the gold-haired form seems to be the most commonly observed type.

[fillthedarkvoid]

You asked for this btw. Spiders appeared somewhere between 318 and 299 million years ago. There are over 20 classifications of spiders, and some spiders aren't even considered spiders (like the camel spider). The oldest spider ever (Australian trapdoor spider) lived until 43 in the wild.

Spiders can change colour depending on what they eat to green or brown. There is one herbivorous spider called Baheera Kiplingi (just like me fr). Spiders can live in groups up to 50,000 or be solitary. Spiders are cold blooded and enjoy sitting in the sun like lizards which I think is really cute. Spiders usually have eight eyes, but they can also have six, four, two or even none if they're a cave dwelling species.

Some male spiders use pheromones in order to attract female spiders, the smell of mammalien blood (from capturing mosquitoes) is apparently really attractive. Spiders can't tell which way is up and which way is down without their eyes. Female spiders can lay up to 3000 eggs at once, which is necessary because spider matings are rare and frequently end in the female eating the male before mating. and some female spiders even care for their children. One spider (toxeus magnus) even produces a milk like substance for its young. The young spiders then use strands of webs as ‘parachutes’ once they’re ready to leave, so they can find their own home.

This is amazing, best spider facts ever. How does the milk spider feed all her young? Has she like 3000 nipples? Also the attractiveness of food made me laugh. Because yeah having your home smell like apple pie makes you very attractive (as a dude you hope not to become the food yourself I guess, so nice there already is food)

Also yeah ofcourse they originate from australia. All cool but scary things do (okay not all of them but australia has a lot of those). Also 43 is crazy old

Did you know I have a spider at my parents place in the bathroom, his name is Fred. Don't know if it is a he. But somehow we deceided that

We should make facts like these more common. These are amazing and so enjoyable.

Thank you theo

[fleshengine]

Ooooo, I can't wait!!!!

Mmmmm I can wait till you decide what kinda mouth you want it to have because that influences what I say-

Actually the head is like the one thing I have down right now. You can check out the (poorly proportioned) sketch I have. As for specific mouth parts, I'm going with the general jumping spider pedipalps, fangs, and chelicerae. But tbh I'll probably differ from standard anatomy and give her a big long tongue, possibly hollow, for her to suck the liquified guts of her prey out with. Because I'm a sucker for big long tongues.

For context I'm thinking of the sona as fully transitioned in the world of the various therian HRT comics floating around. She started as a trans human woman and decided to take spider HRT. Specifically female spider HRT, which made her bigger. Also she got to pick and choose some things about her transition, like keeping her tongue (which grew and changed weirdly), and adding a little bit of Toxeus magnus DNA to the mix so she can grow spider boobs.

[the-martyrfication-of-the-matron]

Spider Facts #3.5: A species of spider has been found to produce a substance similar to milk for their young. This "milk" is rich in nutrients, and about four times richer in protein than cow's milk. Said species is the Toxeus magnus, a type of jumping spider. The spiderlings stay in the mother’s nest after hatching and feed on this fluid. Initially, they consume it by directly sucking it from the mother's body, similar to how mammals nurse from their mother.

The mother continues to produce this "milk" for several weeks, and the spiderlings rely on it even after they start foraging on their own. This care can extend up to 20 days after the spiderlings have become independent, which is unusually long for spiders!

The "milk" allows the spiderlings to grow larger and stronger before they leave the nest, giving them a better chance of survival. Researchers observed in 2018 that spiderlings that were deprived of this "milk" showed stunted growth and reduced survival rates. Toxeus magnus is currently the only species of spider that is known to do this! -> moving on from the fun fact, i have fallen down a rabbit hole of zane and janus. im not a huge shipper but i need more of this toxic subservient-servitude-codependent relationship i have formed in my head. - Arachnon the Pokemon

I’m so sorry I’ve not been responding to your spider facts!!! Ahhhh!!

And yeah, man Zanus slaps. Even when you’re not HUGE on it, the concept of the dynamic is really interesting. Could talk about them forever.

[creature-from-unknown-orgins]

Hiya :) You reblogged this post about things you'd like in your inbox but I couldn't pick one, so here's all of them!

•A compliment: I really like your profile pic :) did you draw it?

•A story: hmmm, this isn't really a story but i went on a school trip to Terschelling once, and I'd use up every free moment I had to go walking in the woods 5 minutes from the place we were staying :) We were in the dunes, and on my way to the forest I passed lots of snails :) The forest itself was lovely, unfortunately the weather made it look kinda sad, but on out last few days we had lovely sunny weather. There were like an endless amount of bunkers, but after a while you stop stumbling upon one every few steps you take.

Also I'd wake up at 4 am every day, bc I don't sleep well away from home, and as soon as it got light, I'd go to the forest. I think the only reason I stayed fairly calm during that trip was all the time I spent alone in the forest :) Anyways, I got lost once but somehow managed to remember the position of the sun around the time I left and found my way back that way :) I also at some point managed to accidentally walk to out next activity & I found the flattest rock I'd ever seen in that forest :) I gave it to a friend the next week bc he was crying and when people cry I instinctually want to give them rocks.

•Why you follow me: because you reblog fun stuff & i like you as a person :)

•A cute message: My cat meows in her sleep :) Also whatever life throws at you, my cat & I think you can survive it :)

•One thing you want to tell me: little fun fact for you, female wolf spiders carry their babies on their backs for a few weeks after birth & another one in case you already knew this one: there's a spider that breastfeeds (sort of, it's similar but not at all the same) (ant-mimic jumping spider, Toxeus magnus)

•One thing you want to know about me: Do you have a favourite card/board game?

Hi!! I'm so sorry for answering late, I honestly thought I'd answered it but I did not. Oops (this was so lovely to read, it made me smile a lot!)

I did draw my profile picture! I'm so happy with it :)

What a coincidence, I just went to Vlieland with school!! I spend a lot of time on the beach, it was amazing! I’m very happy for you that there was such a nice forest :)

Hehehe I like you as a person too and you’re very cool!! How much you know about bugs?? COOL

I do!! It is not my favourite as a game but I really love uno because it’s so much fun to play and you can get creative with the rules!

Thank you so much this really made my day :)

[trickstarbrave]

did you know there is a species of spider (toxeus magnus) that makes "milk" for its babies to drink.

aw thats actually kinda fun and cute. i like that there are some social spiders like that

i do not know if driders do that ._.

[ancient-myth-daily]

Atalanta Part Two: Meleager, The Argonauts, and the Calydonian Boar

i am returned from being dead and now hopefully will be able to post daily at least for a little while.  here’s part one

Atalanta, the athletic follower of Artemis with an oath of virginity and bears for parents, was really chummy with the male heroes of her day, especially Meleager.  Meleager was a Calydonian prince.  His mother was Althaea, a healer, and his father was the vintner king Oeneus (which means wine-man - this guy was basically a disciple of Dionysus who taught the Aetolians how to party down).  Most Greek Heroes, at least the male ones, have a god-daddy too and Meleager’s is Ares.  Meleager also had a bunch of siblings and I do mean a bunch, the most notable of which is probably Deianeira, and her story may have turned out very differently if Atalanta hadn’t ever met Meleager.  Very importantly, when Meleager was born the Moirai (the three fates) declared that Meleager would only live until a piece of wood which was in the family fire place was consumed by fire.  Althaea quickly put out the fire and hid the piece of wood.  

Naturally Meleager as a prince became a monster-fighting, quest-doing, god-pleasing hero, although he didn’t really do the woman-abducting that was so popular with the other guys, and in my book at least that makes him one of the better ones.  He actually was married to a woman named Cleopatra Alcyone, daughter of Idas and Marpessa, who seemed to have loved him very much.  Together they had a daughter named Polydora.  

Some point after meeting Atalanta, Meleager began to have feelings for her.  I feel really bad for his wife in this situation but it seems more like tragic feelings that Meleager couldn’t help rather than Meleager being unfaithful in his nature if that makes sense.  like imo cheating is always wrong!!! but Meleager didn’t even cheat?  he just pined.  it’s just a really unfortunate situation all around :(

You see, Atalanta returned Meleager’s feelings, but they never had sex because of Atalanta’s oath of virginity.  (and, as a side note, I will forever have the headcanon that followers of Artemis are on the asexual spectrum).  So Meleager was pretty depressed about his feelings and everything so he decided to join the Argonauts to take his mind off of it, but Atalanta decided to go on the quest with him.  This is only according to some sources, as some like Apollonius of Rhodes say that the Argonauts were all male and that a woman on the ship is bad luck etc.  According to the sources where Atalanta does join them, she joins in all their adventures and suffers an injury at the battle of Colchis, and is then healed by Medea.  

After the Argonauts got back Jason and Medea conspired to dispose of King Pelias.  During Pelias’ funeral games, Atalanta wrestled and won against Peleus, fellow Argonaut, king of Phthia, and father of Achilles.  

Around this time the vintner king Oeneus committed the cardinal oopsie of Ancient Greece by forgetting to honor Artemis at a festival where he honored all the other gods.  You’d think with the amount of Bad Stuff that happens when gods are forgotten people would learn but apparently not.  Artemis sent a chthonic monster called the Calydonian Boar, perhaps an offspring of the Crommyonian Sow, to kill men and wreck farmland and vineyards.  Not the wine!  Meleager went around Greece gathering all his hero buddies to save his homeland.  This obviously included Atalanta - even if they couldn’t be romantically involved they were like best friends and she was super good at hunting so she was an obvious choice.  This angered a lot of the men in the hunt, especially Meleager’s family and the native Calydonians since a lot of the more famous heroes had already allegedly worked with Atalanta as Argonauts.  

During the hunt, many of the men were killed.  Atalanta in a great victory was the first to draw blood from the boar, and then Meleager slayed the beast with his spear.  Since Atalanta had drawn first blood, Meleager gave her the hide of the beast as a trophy.  Meleager’s maternal uncles, the archer Toxeus and “striking” Plexippus, were really pissed off that the prize was given to a woman and tried to take the hide away from her.  A fight ensued between them and Meleager, and Meleager ended up killing them to protect Atalanta’s honor.  Meleager’s mother Althaea then took revenge on her own son for killing her brothers by throwing the piece of wood the Fates had linked with Meleager’s life into the fire.  The log was consumed and so was Meleager.  

When Meleager died, his wife Cleopatra Alycone died of grief leaving their daughter orphaned, and Meleager’s mourners, who were all but two of his sisters, were transformed by Artemis into guineafowl.  

this was an utter tragedy and Atalanta was very upset by it.  Unfortunately for her, the fame she acquired from the Calydonian Boar hunt led to her being rediscovered by her terrible terrible father Iasus, which ill talk about in part 3.  

sorry ive been inactive for so long btw!!! hopefully ill be more on top of things now.  

[fleshengine]

Lactation?

:3

Snilk (spider milk)

There's a species of jumping spider Toxeus magnus (bangin' name btw) that feed their young "milk" for the first three weeks of their lives. It's not technically milk as it doesn't contain lactose, and spiders don't have mammary glands, but it does contain sugar, fats, and protein. It's actually got four times as much protein as cow's milk, everything a growin' spiderling needs!

I specifically like thinking about it because it gives me a reason to give my jumping spider fursona tits.

get me started on matriphagy and trophic eggs sometime.

[spiderman2-99]

Oh. Oh. The Toxeus magnus?

It doesn't have nipples though. The milk (which is actually a liquefied trophic egg) just comes out of a... a hole... covered with the plates by the lung slits.

...Which is infinitely worse than more nipples, actually.

Do you think some spider people have eight nipples?

[anghraine]

I ran across the name of my GW2 OC in the Metamorphoses—Althea, who in Ovid’s version is a woman who loves her brothers enough to straight-up murder her son after he kills them in a (very stupid) fight.

(Then she stabs herself and her grief-stricken daughters get turned into guinea hens, because this is the Metamorphoses.)

[ayellowbirds]

The ant-mimic jumping spider Toxeus magnus has been discovered to produce a “milk” for its slings. This is the second time i’ve heard of a jumping spider closely tied to ants developing an adaptation unheard of in other arachnids, after the species Bagheera kiplingi was found to be mostly herbivorous, sneaking food from acacia trees guarded by ants. As with B. kiplingi, this seems linked to a heightened tolerance for the presence of other spiders that may even be social behavior. More info at the link.

From another article:

“She feeds them well past the period when they can forage on their own, and the nursing enhances their survival,” says Linda Rayor, an entomologist at Cornell University. “That is really quite interesting, and I don’t know of any comparable data for other spiders. [It’s also] exciting that the spiders stay together long past the period where 99.9 percent of spiders have dispersed independently.”

You can also see a detailed image showing where the droplets emerge from, if you’re the sort of person who likes close-up views of arachnid reproductive anatomy, by going to this Washington Post article.

[theropoda]

adding onto this: considering how some bugs produce a "milk" like substance for their offspring i Want To Believe that some big bug-creatures of morrowind like nixhound or something else do the same. either by producing "milk" out into the world for their already-born offspring as they grow (like the spider toxeus magnus) which could be harvested by squeezing it (as i believe researchers did to the irl spider lol, poor thing) or the way beetle cockroaches and tsetse flies do, producing milk in their "uterus" for their embryo as it develops inside of them, in which case a small container of sorts would be inserted in the uterus and is taken out when milk is deposited

mmmmm. think about fermented bug milk. thank you morrowind

reading about spider silk is makin me think dunmer have probably found out how to mass produce spider silk the way irl humans have been mass producing various moth silk for thousands of years. like idk if its in the lore but whos to say there ISNT a species of like giant spider in morrowind that got domesticated and are now used in the mass production of silk in morrowind which goes on to be used in all sortsa things like clothes to armor to architecture...

[onenicebugperday]

@theonewiththesoks submitted: I have so many new friends to introduce to you!!!

The only species I’m not sure about is the one in the video which was taken in northern South Carolina at Brookgreen Gardens.

Speaking of which I don’t think I shared the insect hotel from the gardens this year so forgive me if I resubmit it! I also saw the cross section of a live beehive between glass panels again this year which I think may have been my first ever submission to your blog! (BG is very bug friendly in case you haven’t noticed lol, they’re huge into nature preservation and education)

I didn’t realize that lovely horsefly was female until after I took her picture and saw the distance between her eyes. Thankfully she accepted my gift of a dandelion but she was less grateful for the sip of water I poured out beside her on a rock.

PS I learned about Toxeus magnus recently and how they nurse their spiderlings, it’s so so cute! Highly recommend you look into it if you haven’t heard of them yet :’)

An excellent group of friends! I don't think I saw the insect hotel before but it's a fun idea. The fly is not a horse fly but you're right that it is a female! The slug is huge and beautiful. The fellow in the video is a flat-backed millipede, likely in Xystodesmidae, but I couldn't say which species exactly. And I did know about Toxeus magnus nursing its young :)

[thoughts-of-ongoing-life-crisis]

Alright yall, I’m about to drop some FACTS on you and then make you question your existence.

Let’s start off. There is a spider called Toxeus magnus that is native to Taiwan and Southeast Asia. It’s a jumping spider that looks like an ant/is an ant mimic. What’s interesting is that they produce ‘milk’ similar to mammals.

So this spider feeds its young via milk glands. (First it leaves droplets of it for the young, but eventually they start eating it straight from the mothers body)

Anyway, this gave me a nightmarish idea. 💡

S p i d e r m i l k

It would be incredibly hard to harvest because tiny. Which would make it extremely expensive, like billionaire expensive. But it is theoretically possible to harvest the spider milk for human consumption. Why? I don’t know. It just sounds like something people would do. Also bragging rights.

Their milk has roughly 4 times more protein than cows milk btw.

[ovidiometamorfoses]

134. Meleagro, Atalanta, Toxeu e Plexipo

Meleagro oferece a cabeça do javali a Atalanta para com ela partilhar a victória. A jovem fica encantada mas os outros guerreiros não gostaram. Os filhos de Téstio - irmãos da mãe de Meleagro - arrebatam a oferenda das mãos de Atalanta. Meleagro, não o suportou e feriu mortalmente os tios (Toxeu e Plexipo).

(Giovanni Battista Crosato - Meleager offers the head of the Calydonian Boar to Atalanta)