Famiglia: FILISTATIDAE

Nome comune:

Nome scientifico: Filistata insidiatrix (Forsskal, 1775)

Global distribution (WSC 2021): Cape Verde Is., Mediterranean to Turkmenistan

GPS (Neapolis):37.076294, 15.276418 - 37.076354, 15.275621 - 37.076540, 15.275787 - 37.076520, 15.274402 - 37.076175, 15.274209

Caratteristiche anatomiche: Ragno dalla colorazione grigiastra, e opistosoma finemente ricoperto da peluria. Le femmine raggiungono la lunghezza di 14 mm. Mostrano un corpo affusolato e più lungo che largo con zampe robuste, e pedipalpi molto allungati. Degli 8 occhi di cui sono provvisti, solamente i laterali posteriori sono facilmente visibili per la colorazione bianca lucente, mentre gli altri più piccoli sono raggruppati e scuri.

Comportamento: Questi ragni costruiscono delle ragnatela nelle spaccature della roccia, o sotto sassi a forma di tunnel con una parte esterna ad imbuto molto intricata, fatta di seta cribbelata e dal cui imbocco si dipartono dei fili di seta d’allarme. Questi avvertono il ragno, che sosta all’ingresso del tunnel sul passaggio di potenziali prede. Uscendo repentinamente dal tunnel cattura la preda usando le zampe anteriori e aiutandosi con i lunghi pedipalpi.

Anatomical features: a spider with a greyish colouration and an opisthosoma finely covered with hairs. Females reach a length of 14 mm. They have a tapering body that is longer than wide with strong legs and very elongated pedipalps. Of their eight eyes, only the lateral ones at the back are easily visible due to their bright white colouring, the other smaller ones being grouped together and dark.

Behaviour: These spiders build webs in the cracks in the rock, or under stones in the form of tunnels with a very intricate funnel-shaped outer part, made of cribbled silk, from the mouth of which alarm threads of silk branch out. These warn the spider, which stops at the entrance to the tunnel, of potential prey. The spider comes out of the tunnel at a moment's notice and captures its prey using its front legs and long legs.

The cosmic web, that’s how we astronomers talk about the big picture, how the universe as a whole presents itself and how galaxies are arranged on large scales. I can show you a flight through the universe. As we think it is. The stuff that is colorful here is actually matter which you can’t really see. On the computer we can paint it and we can illuminate it. What is visible a little bit here is that the backbone of structure of the universe consists of these filament-like structures, which are part of the cosmic web, and along these we find galaxies that are arranged like pearls on a string…We hope to find evidence for unknown elementary particles that we think make up most of the matter in the universe. All of this stuff that is red and yellow here are particles we have not discovered yet on earth.

Volker Springel, lead researcher in the 2005 Millennium Simulation project, in conversation with Tomás Saraceno.

Learn more at https://arachnophilia.net/entanglements.

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