Favoritos de ockertvs

Parasitic worm from a huntsman spider

Body length a tad short of 600mm! Emerged from a sparassid. Found curled up into a Gordian tangle, suggesting a Horsehair Worm or Gordian Worm (due to their knottiness)belonging to the Nematomorpha, usually seen emerging from crickets and grasshoppers. It appears, however, that such worms that come from spiders are more likely mermithid Nematodes. All references I could find quote Poinar 1985. The brief text in ADS2014:(p.19)that deals with nematode parasites of spiders is also copied from that article.

Little seems to be knowm about life cycles or identification of long, tough helminths that live in large spiders. Poinar (1985) mentions mermithids up to 150mm and Nematomorphs that parasitise insects are said to be as long as a meter. By size and general appearance this worm resembles Nematomorphs I've seen emerging from Cockroaches.

I dipped the worm in hot water to kill it so I could satisfy my curiosity about its length. It is now preserved in cane spirits if anyone is interested?

Roman Passion

Length approx. 25mm
Started filming a few seconds in, so whole encounter took approx 90seconds. Full video here: https://youtu.be/UOZ53L8qk0A

I saw the male circling the female, then suddenly dart in behind her. He held her in his jaws, her abdomen bend up and over her head. They continued back and forth for 90seconds, at times it became frenetic and he whacked her up and down on the sand a number of times (as in GIF), which made me think perhaps they weren't mating but that one solifuge was killing the other. But in the end they separated unharmed.

From Wikipedia:
" Life cycle
..Reproduction can involve direct or indirect sperm transfer; when indirect, the male emits a spermatophore on the ground and then inserts it with his chelicerae in the female's genital pore. To do this, he flings the female on her back.
The female then digs a burrow, into which she lays 50 to 200 eggs – some species then guard them until they hatch. Because the female does not feed during this time, she will try to fatten herself beforehand, and a species of 5 cm has been observed to eat more than 100 flies during that time in the laboratory. Solifugae undergo a number of stages including, egg, postembryo, 9–10 nymphal instars, and adults."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solifugae#Life_cycle

Links to more mating vids here: https://www.inaturalist.org/comments/2330202