For Surely Someday...

scientificpokedex

Requested by @redwoodthunder, @empoleonpaladin, @xeobug-iii, and anonymously

When I first saw that the Dewpider family were spiders, my immediate thought was this:

These are jumping spiders, and sadly these photographs are extremely staged. These spiders do not naturally carry dewdrops on their head for any reason, but they’re still cute enough, and slightly relevant enough, that I wanted to share.

More relevant, perhaps, is the Diving Bell Spider. These spiders, like most spiders, cannot breathe underwater. And yet, unlike most spiders, they spend most of their entire lives underwater, only coming up for air once a day. They can do this because these spiders bring air bubbles underneath the water with them, like little bubble scuba helmets:

Looks a lot like Dewpider and Araquanid, right? The Araquanid family, however, is the opposite: they can only breathe through water, presumably through some sort of gill system. So, to live on land they must bring a bubble of water with them.

A Diving Bell Spider’s abdomen is covered in tiny hydrophobic hairs. Hydrophobic, meaning “afraid of water”, refers to a material that repels water: so when these spiders go underwater, water stays away from their abdomen and a bubble is created. This is only the start of their bubbles, however. The larger “bell” bubbles which encase their whole bodies is created by their webs: their silk is thin and nearly invisible (like most spider silk), and so spinning cocoons allows them to build much larger bubbles of air.

The interesting part is that they won’t suffocate in these bubbles: despite the small amount of air trapped in these bubbles, the oxygen can replenish itself even while they’re underwater: oxygen from the water can enter into the bubble, while the water will stay out. Because of this, Diving Bell Spiders only need to surface about once per day.

Even though Araquanid and Dewpider have bubbles of water and not air, you can imagine the process is probably similar. Their heads must be covered with tiny, hydrophilic hairs which attract water. Then, spinning a thin net of silk allows them to keep larger bubbles of water with them at all times.

Araquanid and Dewpider’s bubbles are surrounded by their nearly-invisible spider silk, which keeps the water close to their heads so they can spend extended periods of time on land.

Net Neutrality Dies On April 23

We just need one more vote to overrule the repeal of Net Neutrality

Please contact your Senators and Representatives urging them to vote for the CRA (Congressional Review Act)

List of Senators onboard for protecting Net Neutrality:

The Senators in red are the ones who are currently not voting so convince them to vote for the CRA: https://www.battleforthenet.com/scoreboard/

Text “RESIST” to 50409 to send an email to your Senators/Representatives! Tell them to vote for the CRA and give them details to persuade them on why Net Neutrality is so important and why it should be preserved. You can also call at 202-224-3121.

Script for phone calls: