Bio-Nerds, Part 1

So generally, we try to pretend like we’re quasi-normal people. But the truth of the matter is, at heart, we’re bio-nerds. And I’m sure this will not be the last entry with such a title, so I’m having the fore-sight to label this one “part 1.”

There are tons of great spiders here (yes, including several of the world’s most deadly). And the other day, Ben discovered two Black House Spiders on our back porch. So what would a bio-nerd do? Feed ‘em. We spent at least 30 min catching flies and throwing them in their webs and taking photos when the spiders ran out to get the flies. The next morning, the porch was littered with little eviscerated/ compacted fly skeletons – like when dad used to suck the air out of the milk carton to collapse it and Jen and I thought it was so cool. One spider is more skittish; one seems a little more bold. They’re both getting really fat.

And bug hunting is also a common form of procrastination at the office. Since most people in the lab study some local bug, they can call it “work.” Kerry has to admit what it really is: future (hypothetical) job training. And there’s some really cool stuff out there! But our all time favourite spider right now is the wrap-around spider (Dolophones sp.). It has the biggest, flattest, funkiest abdomen we’ve seen, and it does an amazingly good job of camouflaging with tree bark – just looks like a little fuzzy patch (it stands out more in the photo than it did when just looking at the bush).