But do they pet them?
Spider cats
Submitted 8 months ago by fossilesque@mander.xyz to science_memes@mander.xyz
https://mander.xyz/pictrs/image/f7519efb-2e53-4cdd-a857-4bc78ec890f5.jpeg
Comments
Xyre@lemmus.org 8 months ago
bdonvr@thelemmy.club 8 months ago
From another comment: aussie.zone/comment/7627328
Young spiders have sometimes been observed to grab the frogs, examine them with their mouthparts, and then release them unharmed.
ericatty@lemmy.ml 8 months ago
In the common vernacular, the spider gives them kissy kisses
Lemminary@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Tenderly
Zerush@lemmy.ml 8 months ago
Hunting spiders are very smart animals, even the little jumping spiders. They all know very well what they are doing, because they have to make plans and strategics to catch their prey, something what the spiders with webs don’t need.
CitizenKong@lemmy.world 8 months ago
There is a very cool sci-fi novel called Children of Time in which jumping spiders are accidentally uplifted and evolve into an intelligent species.
psud@aussie.zone 8 months ago
And the jumping spiders have very cute faces, with their two large forward facing eyes
Though another hunting spider common in my bit of the world - the huntsman spider - isn’t nearly as cute, though we tolerate them in our houses, and they like our houses. They’re camouflaged for eucalypt bark, and they think they’re hidden when standing on flat painted wallboard
Bishma@discuss.tchncs.de 8 months ago
That frog looks like it’s about to start barking like terrier.
xilliah@beehaw.org 8 months ago
If the frog was the size of a terrier it wouldn’t be the frog I would be afraid of.
Cruxifux@lemmy.world 8 months ago
The videos of it are cute too. The little frogs follow the spiders around and do a little squishy squishy underneath them where they’re safe and protected by their big strong spider pals.
xkforce@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Spider frog! spider frog! Does whatever a spider frog does!
WhiskyTangoFoxtrot@lemmy.world 8 months ago
If a frog had the proportional strength, speed and agility of a spider, would that be an upgrade or a downgrade?
skylestia@lemmy.blahaj.zone 8 months ago
omg that’s adorable
cypherpunks@lemmy.ml 8 months ago
The spiders tell themselves that they’re keeping the tiny frogs around because they’re killing pests and also kind of cute but, really, there is a brain parasite in the frogs’ feces - tiny amounts of which are all over the floor of the spiders’ burrows - which makes the spider believe this.
sirico@feddit.uk 8 months ago
Froggy has the very serious face on
FooBarrington@lemmy.world 8 months ago
If the spider ever thinks they’re not serious about the job, they’ll get eaten
gingernate@lemmy.world 8 months ago
He’s being held as a slave by a massive spider poor guy! Hahaha
tocopherol@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 months ago
Is the frog captive though? I had a cat that became mine after it starting killing the mice in my garage, so it was mutually beneficial, maybe the frog and the spider have an understanding.
TheKingBee@lemmy.world 8 months ago
It gets protection from large things while getting all the free tiny bugs it can eat, it’s a great deal.
Imgonnatrythis@sh.itjust.works 8 months ago
I hope the teeny frogs give the spiders hell like cats do to us.
LiveLM@lemmy.zip 8 months ago
Somewhere in the world, a frog-cat is knocking down a spider-flowerpot from the spider-counter right now
No_Eponym@lemmy.ca 8 months ago
So many spiders have fallen prey to the cats kept by humans, the great oppressors of spiders. And yet, instead of rising up against this oppression, some spiders have internalized the image of the oppressor, adopted the guidelines of the oppressor, and now seek to build the spider-frog equivalent of a “Catio.”
tooclose104@lemmy.ca 8 months ago
I only don’t hate this because I love frogs. If the spider lives frog too, then I can tolerate it.
AFC1886VCC@reddthat.com 8 months ago
Let’s not call them spider cats. Let’s call them spider thralls. That sounds more badass.
Des@hexbear.net 8 months ago
and i thought these types of spiders were just big dummies
also this just reminded me to finish reading Children of Time!
jballs@sh.itjust.works 8 months ago
Children of Time is an amazing book! If you just finished, I hope you’re doing Children of Ruin next. I didn’t think it was quite as good, but still worth a read.
SplashJackson@lemmy.ca 8 months ago
So wait, cats eat things that’ll eat human babies?
TheKingBee@lemmy.world 8 months ago
yeah, rats.
we’ve generally solved the rat problem, but that was the initial pitch, then their cute faces hypnotized us.
SplashJackson@lemmy.ca 8 months ago
Nice
phx@lemmy.ca 8 months ago
Also, if the spiders get really hungry then there’s an easy lunch nearby
thesporkeffect@lemmy.world 8 months ago
This is technically true of human pets
phx@lemmy.ca 8 months ago
Uhhhh, I hate that you’re technically correct in this
Omega_Haxors@lemmy.ml 8 months ago
D61@hexbear.net 8 months ago
The Odd Couple remake for the 2020’s is pretty cool, not gonna lie.
Instigate@aussie.zone 8 months ago
So it looks like the frogs mentioned in this meme are microhylids, and for some further info:
This is also super cute behaviour:
Apparently the spiders’ protectiveness can also be pretty overt:
And some ideas on why this might be an example of mutualistic behaviour rather than commensalism:
Source: scientificamerican.com/…/tiny-frogs-and-giant-spi…
CosmicTurtle@lemmy.world 8 months ago
I’m imagining the scene from Step Brothers:
Spider: Can you eat the ants but not my eggs?
Frog: YUP! Can you protect me from other things that want to eat me?
Spider: YUP! Did we just become best friends?!
Frog: YUP!
rockerface@lemm.ee 8 months ago
Spiders grabbing frogs and releasing them is like humans grabbing their cats and going for snuggles
bane_killgrind@lemmy.ml 8 months ago
fsxylo@sh.itjust.works 8 months ago
I was worried that the spider ends up eating the frog but they’re actually buddies!
GreatDong3000@lemm.ee 8 months ago
Spiders more civilized than some of my coworkers
beebarfbadger@lemmy.world 7 months ago
My coworkers also always eat any frog I place between their mandibles.
Lemminary@lemmy.world 8 months ago
That is too fucking adorable
newtraditionalists@beehaw.org 8 months ago
Thank you for this high effort reply. Super interesting and cool to learn about!