Comment on Are spiders turtlely enough for the Turtle Club?
andros_rex@lemmy.world 2 days agoHere’s one eating a frog.
What specifically about the physics of the situation is making you suspicious? I’ve worked in an invertebrate lab, admittedly primarily with ants, and nothing about this raises alarm bells.
blackbrook@mander.xyz 2 days ago
I imagine the weight of that turtle to be considerably more than that frog.
andros_rex@lemmy.world 2 days ago
Spiders routinely hold onto 100x more than their weight. Are you basing any of this on a knowledge of invertebrate biology? Ants can do similarly impressive feats.
blackbrook@mander.xyz 1 day ago
BTW 100x is only possible with very small arthropods, the larger the ant or spider and the smaller that strength to weight ratio can be.
Now admittedly we can’t really know how large the spider and turtle are, if they are much smaller than I am imagining then my incredulity may be similarly out of proportion.
blackbrook@mander.xyz 1 day ago
Every picture of a fishing spider I can find is holding its (smaller than this turtle) prey at the water’s edge, not dangling upside down with it in midair. They hunt by walking on the water, not by dangling and snatching from above. Are we to believe it caught its prey the normal way and then walked it up to that awkward position?