{"id":14130,"date":"2012-07-25T07:33:32","date_gmt":"2012-07-25T06:33:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/communicatescience.com\/zoonomian\/?p=14130"},"modified":"2013-08-24T07:16:22","modified_gmt":"2013-08-24T06:16:22","slug":"orderly-animals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/communicatescience.com\/zoonomian\/2012\/07\/25\/orderly-animals\/","title":{"rendered":"Orderly Animals"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Gee, humans are smart.\u00a0 Never mind the moon landing, today we have these fantastic slide-away pantries to squirrel our stuff away.\u00a0 The ultimate in mall to wall storage efficiency.<\/p>\n

Then again, maybe that honor should go to the first of two non-human tidy housekeepers that crossed my path this week: the Acorn Woodpecker (Melanenpes formicivorus)<\/em>:<\/p>\n

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I’ve written about woodpeckers before –\u00a0 HERE<\/a>. \u00a0 But this example, snapped in Santa Barbara Zoo (of all places, given the birds are all over the area) is the best example of an acorn-saturated tree trunk I’ve seen.\u00a0 Acorns placed by woodpeckers into holes excavated by woodpeckers – for later consumption.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Tidy Trashlines<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Next up, the Trashline Orb Weaver spider (genus Cyclosa<\/em>).\u00a0 I came across this guy on a pick-your-own blueberry adventure at nearby Gaviota, strung across the bushes.\u00a0 (And vulnerable to accidental picking –\u00a0 it’s likely I ate one of these.):<\/p>\n

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Trashline Orb Weaver Spider<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Blueberries<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Trashline<\/a>
Trashline Orb Weaver Spider<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The spider is the darker lump at the center of the web, hidden among the string of five packages: its ‘trash’, made of bits of old victims, egg sacs, plant material and such like caught in the web.\u00a0 I’d never seen one before, but now I now about them I’ve spotted a couple more in other locations.\u00a0 Here’s one, startled to life below a vertical, albeit incipient, trashline:<\/p>\n

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Trashline Orb Weaver Spider<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Left alone, they pull in their legs and try to look like a piece of trash:<\/p>\n

\"Trashline<\/a>
Trashline Orb Weaver Spider – legs tucked in<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Incidentally, in the top picture you can see a visibly thicker, extra-strong, ‘cross-beam’ section of webbing, the stabilimetum, on which the main web and trashline hangs.<\/p>\n

Why go to the trouble?\u00a0\u00a0 Spider researchers reckon the trashline disguises the spider from approaching food insects, which can then be grabbed more easily; but also hides it from predators ~ a strategy more effective against birds than wasps (ref 1).<\/p>\n

Yeah, we’re smart – in some things; but we’re not the whole story by a long shot.<\/p>\n

Of related interest<\/strong><\/p>\n

‘Decorative Spider Webs Attract Dinner<\/a>‘ (BBC item from 20\/9\/12)<\/p>\n

References and further reading<\/strong><\/p>\n

1. Detritus decorations of an Orb-Weaving spider (Cyclosa mulmelnensis): for food or camouflage ?\u00a0 Tan E. & Li D., Journal of Experimental Biology, 2009, DOI 10.1242\/jeb 030502 (pdf here<\/a>)<\/p>\n

2. Insectidentification.org<\/a><\/p>\n

3. Trashiline Orb Weaver – A cool spider (abundantnature.com)<\/a><\/p>\n

Photos copyright Tim Jones<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gee, humans are smart.\u00a0 Never mind the moon landing, today we have these fantastic slide-away pantries to squirrel our stuff away.\u00a0 The ultimate in mall to wall storage efficiency. Then again, maybe that honor should go to the first of two non-human tidy housekeepers that crossed my path this week: the Acorn Woodpecker (Melanenpes formicivorus): … Continue reading Orderly Animals<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,1],"tags":[1004,1424],"class_list":["post-14130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-animals","category-uncategorized","tag-spider","tag-woodpecker"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pkpOr-3FU","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/communicatescience.com\/zoonomian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14130","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/communicatescience.com\/zoonomian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/communicatescience.com\/zoonomian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communicatescience.com\/zoonomian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communicatescience.com\/zoonomian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14130"}],"version-history":[{"count":57,"href":"https:\/\/communicatescience.com\/zoonomian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14130\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17574,"href":"https:\/\/communicatescience.com\/zoonomian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14130\/revisions\/17574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/communicatescience.com\/zoonomian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communicatescience.com\/zoonomian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communicatescience.com\/zoonomian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}