That would be the guy who owns a Goliath birdeater.
<< Raises hand >>
Not quite. First, you’re talking about palps (or more properly, pedipalps). Both males and females have them; it’s just that upon sexual maturity, the male palps are engorged with sperm. (In tarantulas, sexual maturity typically occurs during the last year or two of life. I don’t know about other spider species, though.)
Some males will develop mating spurs on their forelegs during sexual maturity, but not all species exhibit this type of sexual dimorphism.
With tarantulas, you can examine the exuvium (the molted exoskeleton) and look for the outer skin of the female reproductive organs. This requires a bit of practice though, and only works for fairly mature individuals. Once again, I don’t know how well this applies to other spider species.
I know an entymologist who says this is not strictly true. Bees can repeatedly sting most animals, it’s only humans and (IIRC) cows that have skin that rips the bees’ stingers out. Bees have no idea when they sting you that it’s going to cost their lives. They are not normally aggressive anyway, so the sting thing IS a defense mechanism, rather than a pre-emptive strike, but it’s a mistake to think a bee has to be REALLY pissed before it’ll sting.
Awwww.
Awwww.
Yeep! :eek:
Yeep! :eek:
I’m with Hal on this one. I’m not anti-spider, just anti-large-brown-hairy-jumping-spider-anywhere-near-me. Orb spiders are cool to watch, as long as they’re outdoors.
Wow! I want a birdeater tarantula! Waaaayyyy cool!
JThunder, thanks for the correction. I guess you can’t learn everything from nature shows.
Snakes are cool. (It helps to live in a part of the country where the only venomous snake is the Mississauga rattler, so there is no possibility of getting poisoned “by accident.”) I’ve been bitten by both of our pythons and one of our boas–but only when I was being less than careful after they thought they were about to be fed. I’ve also had a garter snake bite me, but she was just frightened when I tried to move her out of the way of the lawnmower. None of them have very big teeth and the bleeding stops in a day or two (actually within a couple of minutes).
Of course, I do tend to avoid swimming near the Lake Erie Islands where the sea snakes hang out. They are not venomous, but have an anti-coagulant agent in their saliva.
Spiders are cool. We get a jumping spider in our mailbox every summer and she (well, a different she each summer) and I are friends. The wolf spiders in the basement are pretty cool, although they tend to fall prey to the cats.
Oh, bees are OK, too, although the mites have killed off nearly all the honey bees near our house. The vicary used to be alive with them when it bloomed, but in recent years we’ve only gotten a few dozen wasps. I don’t have a big problem with wasps and hornets, either. If they get into the house, it is no problem to pick them up with an Old Fashioned glass and a 3 X 5 card and release them outside. The carpenter bees are more of an issue. They don’t sting (although they are about the size of a 747), but they do eat into the deck and faschia board, so I have to go kill them from time to time.
Does this remind anyone else of the scene in Roadtrip when Tom Green’s character is in charge of feeding his friend’s snake?
I’m guessing you fooled me by noting your address as the Pit of Despair. 
Hal, any fool can find a kitten adorable. You’re a special kind of something when you can find a spider adorable.