{"id":1261,"date":"2013-11-04T21:37:11","date_gmt":"2013-11-04T08:37:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/2013\/11\/a_creeping_assassin\/"},"modified":"2013-11-04T21:37:11","modified_gmt":"2013-11-04T08:37:11","slug":"a-creeping-assassin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/2013\/11\/a-creeping-assassin\/","title":{"rendered":"a creeping assassin"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> The daughter &amp; her friends play <em>Assassin&#039;s Creed <\/em>from time to time. This little arachnid would fit right in:<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.calacademy.org\/science_now\/academy_research\/images\/archaeid_eating_450w.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2018\/09\/archaeid_eating_450w.jpg\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.calacademy.org\/science_now\/academy_research\/assassin_spiders.php\">Photo: Jeremy Miller<\/a><\/p>\n<p> For this is an assassin spider, one of a&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.calacademy.org\/sciencetoday\/assassin-spiders\/5510346\/\">number of species&nbsp;(in the superfamily Palpiamanoidea)<\/a>&nbsp;that prey on other spiders.<\/p>\n<p> The assassin spiders have a long history: a combination of fossil &amp; <a href=\"http:\/\/sysbio.oxfordjournals.org\/content\/62\/2\/264.abstract?sid=cc8d266f-55b7-45ce-b47a-aae2e5c56579\">DNA evidence <\/a>suggests that they go to before the supercontinent Gondwana began to break up under the slow but irresistable influence of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ucmp.berkeley.edu\/geology\/tectonics.html\">plate tectonics<\/a>. While there&#039;s one fossil found in what&#039;s now the northern hemisphere, all living species are found south of the equator, in Madagascar, South Africa,&nbsp;and Australia.<\/p>\n<p> These strange little creatures are only a couple of millimetres long, but have a set of adaptations that allow them to strike their prey from a (reasonably!) safe distance. Their fang-tipped jaws are enormous &#8211; in the image above, the jaws holding the spider&#039;s meal are about the length of the animal&#039;s abdomen.&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/creepyanimals.com\/2009\/10\/unapologetically-creepy-assassin-spider\/\">The long &#039;neck&#039; <\/a>is an extension of the cephalothorax &#8211; the first of the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.earthlife.net\/chelicerata\/s-anatomy.html\">2 major sections of a spider&#039;s body <\/a>(the other is the abdomen, or opisthoma). The combination of neck &amp; jaws means an assassin spider can impale another spider before the latter is within range to strike back. That&#039;s after they&#039;ve found their prospective dinner by following lines of thread it&#039;s left behind, using their very long forelegs (which may also be used to lure the prey closer.<\/p>\n<p> Which is probably quite enough for those of you who aren&#039;t fond of spiders, not even itsy little 2mm-long spiders. But for those who want to find out more, try this video:<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The daughter &amp; her friends play Assassin&#039;s Creed from time to time. This little arachnid would fit right in: Photo: Jeremy Miller For this is an assassin spider, one of a&nbsp;number of species&nbsp;(in the superfamily Palpiamanoidea)&nbsp;that prey on other spiders. The assassin spiders have a long history: a combination of fossil &amp; DNA evidence suggests [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,37,5],"tags":[19,38,12],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>a creeping assassin : BioBlog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/2013\/11\/a-creeping-assassin\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"a creeping assassin : BioBlog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The daughter &amp; her friends play Assassin&#039;s Creed from time to time. This little arachnid would fit right in: Photo: Jeremy Miller For this is an assassin spider, one of a&nbsp;number of species&nbsp;(in the superfamily Palpiamanoidea)&nbsp;that prey on other spiders. The assassin spiders have a long history: a combination of fossil &amp; DNA evidence suggests [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/2013\/11\/a-creeping-assassin\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"BioBlog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-11-04T08:37:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2018\/09\/archaeid_eating_450w.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Alison\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@AcampbelTeacher\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Alison\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/2013\/11\/a-creeping-assassin\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/2013\/11\/a-creeping-assassin\/\",\"name\":\"a creeping assassin : BioBlog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/2013\/11\/a-creeping-assassin\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/2013\/11\/a-creeping-assassin\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2018\/09\/archaeid_eating_450w.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-11-04T08:37:11+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-11-04T08:37:11+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/#\/schema\/person\/9676347d9dce672ed12b14407e623cea\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/2013\/11\/a-creeping-assassin\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-NZ\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/2013\/11\/a-creeping-assassin\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-NZ\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/2013\/11\/a-creeping-assassin\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2018\/09\/archaeid_eating_450w.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2018\/09\/archaeid_eating_450w.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/2013\/11\/a-creeping-assassin\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"a creeping assassin\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/\",\"name\":\"BioBlog\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-NZ\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/#\/schema\/person\/9676347d9dce672ed12b14407e623cea\",\"name\":\"Alison\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/AcampbelTeacher\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/author\/acampbel\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"a creeping assassin : BioBlog","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/2013\/11\/a-creeping-assassin\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"a creeping assassin : BioBlog","og_description":"The daughter &amp; her friends play Assassin&#039;s Creed from time to time. 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