The spiders' point of view.
Many of you have posted about phobia of spiders. While I'm as arachnophobic as the rest of you, I thought I'd post what spiders would fear if their perception were as good as humans'.

There's this wasp called Hymenoepimecis argyraphaga which lays it's eggs on a spider. The wasp-larvae hatch and start modifying the spider brain in such a way that it begins to build a type of web that looks absolutely nothing like it's normal web. This particular web is designed specially for the purposes of incubating the wasp larvae. Once the 'web' is finished, the larva devours the host spider.

Below is the normal web and the special web



Now, imagine if you're a spider happily and octopedally walking on your merry way and then all of a sudden you see this unholy apparation



, I bet it would scare the crap out of you.

See http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/841401.stm for more details.
( mistaspakkaman and the inedible shifting caterpillars, Thu 10 Apr 2008, 21:15, 4 replies)

gee thanks
for scaring the crap out of me!
( flirting with badgers What? It sounded good at the time., Fri 11 Apr 2008, 4:22, closed)

O.O
That really is rather disturbing. I had no idea there was anything this scary in nature! I think we should fight back, teach nature a lesson it will never forget!

*cough*

I think I'll go lie down now.

Have fun.
(NosmoKing, Fri 11 Apr 2008, 12:57, closed)

There's a nice one
to mention to religious folk. "See that wasp? God made that on purpose"
( Olembe Refuses to write in this space, Fri 11 Apr 2008, 17:29, closed)

It was Satan who made the wasps, not God.
God was responsible for the kittens.

Kittens and Wasps are like nature's Yin and Yang.
( mistaspakkaman and the inedible shifting caterpillars, Sun 13 Apr 2008, 22:11, closed)