Facts

Here is your hub for the most interesting and unique facts surrounding this amazing organism!

Now how on Earth did you come to research this particular organism, you might ask? Well, Amanda and I were assigned a website project as part of our Organismal Biology class. With this assignment we were expected to research the plethora of knowledge of a particular organism from our professor, Dr. Meredith Thomsen's, research site in California. This site is referred to as the Angelo Reserve. From the moment we laid our eyes on this tiny, peculiar spider we fell in love. Read on to see some of the fascinating facts that fueled the flame of our intrigue with this organism!

•The Cyclosa conica builds a web that is decorated with stabilimenta that can include remaining parts of its prey (Tso 1998).

•Their web structure allows them to capture about 150% more prey (Tso 1998)!

•The Cyclosa utilizes its prey in its web as a source of camoflague (Tso 1998).

•The Cyclosa conica only have one mate, just like humans (Rittschof et al. 2011)!

•Male Cyclosa get very territorial over their women and block their ability to reproduce without them with their pedipalps (Economist 2003).

•Males sacrifice their lives and die after reproduction (Economist 2003).

•The females are larger than the males (Blamires 2010).

•The Cyclosa conica have been found to contain a newly discovered bacterial parasite Cardinium that has been a new source of research throughout the scientific field (Stefanini and Duron 2012).

•Cyclosa conica are oftentimes referred to as trashline orbweavers based on their stabilimenta (Blackledge et al. 2005).

<<Interactions                                                    References                                                    Contact >>