23 August, 2009:
Hello.
Perhaps you might be interested in a few of my photos to add to your collection, both of live and fossil spiders. They are, perhaps, nothing spectacular, but they are a bit different. I'll try to describe them in the order of attachment.
Live spiders, all from Ann Arbor, MI, USA:
A feather-legged spider (Uloborid) in its orb-web;
a pirate spider;
a brown lynx spider;
a crab spider;
and a pair of cobweb spiders.
Dominican amber arachnids:
Cephalothorax of an odd-looking jumping-spider;
and a stereo-view of a schizomid (you can free-view it, or print it out and look at it with an old-fashioned stereoscope).
Baltic amber spiders:
Whole body;
and cephalothorax, of a large (for amber) spider of uncertain type (maybe a clubionid?);
and the head-end of an Archaea sp. (Archaea was first discovered in Baltic amber, and subsequently found alive in isolated tropical areas; it is a specialized spider hunter with very long jaws).
Burmese amber spiders:
Uncertain type (note the strange conical eyes; not 100% certain it's Burmese, as it's an old photo);
a Lagonomegopid (only found in Cretaceous amber), note the large eye on the side of the cephalothorax;
a small unknown spider;
and a close-up of a foot of web-spinning spider, x440. It has the two comb-shaped claws, and the hook-and-hairs third claw arrangement for grasping strands of webbing.
Burmese amber is mid-Cretaceous (c. 100-110 MYO). Some of the spiders found in it are strange. The best summary of it is given here, via the American Museum of Natural History:
http://digitallibrary.amnh.org/dspace/handle/2246/2914
Most of the amber photos here have been processed to get rid of most of the yellow to improve the contrast, hence the strange colours.
Hope these are useful.
Yours sincerely,
David Sorenson.
Click for a larger view. |
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23 October, 2008:
Hi,
Just got a new digital microscope and thought I would try it out an a piece of amber.
When I bought it I was informed that the amber was from the Eocene epoch and is at least 33 million years old.
Excellent site
Nigel T |
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CHIAPAS AMBER |
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