Mason+Wasp+Nest

=Mason Wasp's Nest and Orb Web Spiders=

Our scientific mission:

 * to explore the spiders and identify the spider parts

. //Pison spinolae// Shuckard || //Eriophora transmarina// || The muddy nest attached to roughcast on top of a door frame. || Three rooms, two larvae and some Orb web spiders || The muddy patterns of the nest. The mud is collected by the waps from muddy puddles. || Inside a chamber with its neatly fitting door. || Orb Web spiders paralyzed by the wasp's venom. A dead spider's legs are curled up. These spider's are still alive. || The larva with its stockpile of orb web spiders, eating, eating, eating.... || The wasp larva with its chewing mouthparts. The horny brown triangle is for scraping. || The larva uses mud and silk to make its cocoon || The cephalothorax - head and thorax combined. A spider's body is divided into 2 parts, not 3 parts like an insect's body. || The coxae - segments of the leg closest to the body || The chelicera with its fangs. The fangs open and close and inject venom. || The chelicera from the top || Three pairs of spinnerets at the tip of the abdomen for making silk. The silk comes out as a fluid and hardens in the air. || The spinnerets close-up showing the spigots for making different kinds of silk - wrapping, cocoon, sticky or anchor-line silks. || The hooked claws at the end of the leg are for web building. || The leg hairs are attched to muscles which give the spider its sense of touch and help it feel vibrations. || The spider has 8 eyes in 2 rows. It's eyesight is poor. It can only see light and dark. The eyes at the side face backwards to increase its field of view.. || The epigynum is where the female's eggs come out. The two pale areas either side are the book lungs. The shiny line running across is the epigastic furrow. It separates the lungs from the rest of the abdomen. || The sternum - on the undersize of the cephalothorax. a hard, rounded plate with the legs attached. || The opisthosoma (abdomen) with the stalk-like pedicel. The main blood vessel, abdominal and intestinal nerves all pass through this thin stalk. || The male's "boxing glove" pedipalps, for funneling sperm into the female. || The female's pedipalps.Pedipals are thought to be used like antennae. ||
 * [[image:ventral.gif width="539" height="344"]] ||
 * [[image:wasp.jpg width="319" height="240"]]
 * Mason Wasp**
 * Orb Web Spider**
 * [[image:P1190652.JPG]]
 * [[image:mason_wasp_cocoon-8.jpg]]
 * [[image:P1190658.jpg]]
 * [[image:mason_wasp_cocoon-1.jpg]]
 * [[image:spiderlings_nest-116.jpg]]
 * [[image:spiderlings_nest-131.jpg]]
 * [[image:spiderlings_nest-120.jpg width="328" height="247"]]
 * [[image:spiderlings_nest-117.jpg]]
 * [[image:spiderlings_nest-127.jpg]]
 * [[image:spiderlings_nest-121.jpg]]
 * [[image:spiderlings_nest-133.jpg]]