Spiders are far more interesting than flies. After the houseflies episode, I never expected to face a new animal challenge in such a short time... but I did. As I was getting ready to fly over Ocean Pacific waters, on my P38F, on Microsoft's Combat Flight Simulator 2, using a Sidewinder FF joystick, I noticed a strange entity near the stick's throttle control - it was a very small spider!

Exactly as it happened with the flies, my first thought was to kill the thing, but I resisted and managed to capture the spider, live and without a single scratch, on any of its 8 legs! It was a perfect maneuver!

I prefer spiders to flies. It pleases me the fact that they can't fly :), and their fangs too. From what I can remember from school, all spiders are poisonous, yet very few have a poison that can affect even the smallest mammal.

One thing that most books don't tell you about spiders, is their tremendous oxygen economy. The spider I trapped in a transparent sample container, is living there for two (2) days now, and it still kicks and spins silk, from time to time! The home flies I captured the other day, didn't resist one hour!- One died on the capture, the other died - I presume - of lack of oxygen, during the photo session :). How cruel.

Today's pictures are of great quality. Yes they are. They clearly show the two (2) segments of the arachnid: the cephalotorax and the abdomen, connected by what's called the "pedicel". The spider you'll see is quite smart, and sometimes "fakes" her death, getting so still that only using the 200x magnification of the microscope, it is possible to see movements on the body - precisely on the "pedicel"! You can download a video of the situation - this video is a great footage!, because it magnifies the most fragile part of the creature.

One part of the spider I never managed to picture, from a frontal view, is the adorable fangs. Yet, there are a few lateral frames, that show them. Sorry. I also can't tell the sex of the captured spider, but it should be a male, because it really is small.

So enjoy my selection of eight (8) pictures and two (2) videos. You can access these files, from my main Intel QX3 Microscope page, or directly from the QX3's Exhibit #02 page.