Australian Spider Hunts Fish.

[The Romulan Republic]

http://www.sciencealert.com/scientists- ... catch-fish

A new species of spider, Dolomedes briangreenei, which likes to swim and catch fish, has been discovered in Queensland.

It is named after physicist and World Science Festival co-founder, Brian Greene, professor of physics and mathematics at Columbia University.


Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk unveiled the spider to Green in Brisbane today at the opening of the inaugural World Science Festival.

The Brisbane spider is about the size of the palm of a hand and uses vibrations on the surface of the water, or waves, to navigate and find prey.

It eats fish, frogs, and tadpoles and the introduced cane toad, making a significant contribution to the management of the pest.

The spiders are also good swimmers, usually working from the sides of pools and off rocks. They can also been seen sculling across the surface with their two middle pairs of legs.

When disturbed or hauling in captured fish, they will plunge through the surface of the water and swim quickly to hide on the bottom.

Not much to add, really, except that its a reminder of how diverse life is.

[Isolder74]

Not much to add other then noting that indeed no place in Australia is safe from the wildlife.

[SpottedKitty]

Not much to add other then noting that indeed no place in Australia is safe from the wildlife.

It's looking more and more like the late Sir Pterry was on to something with his portrayal of the wildlife in a-place-that-definitely-isn't-Australia...

A character picks up a hefty book from a large pile in their magical library: "Dangerous Mammals, Reptiles, Amphibians, Birds, Fish, Jellyfish, Insects, Spiders, Crustaceans, Grasses, Trees, Mosses, and Lichens of Terror Incognita, Volume 29c, Part Three." The same library supplies a complete listing of non-poisonous creatures: a post-it note reading "some of the sheep".

[LaCroix]

So a palm-sized spider is the only animal that could help to stop the cane-toad?

Australia, you are a fucked up country...

[Lord of the Abyss]

A bit longer article:

Columbia University researcher and professor Brian Greene is perhaps best known as a leading theoretical physicist and a proponent of string theory. Now, he has the honor of sharing his name with a recently-discovered species of water spider that can surf small waves and hunts small fish and toads.

The Dolomedes briangreenei, as researchers have named the spider, may not be a physics expert (or a Smithsonian Magazine columnist) like its namesake, but it does know a thing about waves, as the Australian Associated Press (AAP) reports. About the size of a human palm, the spider has the novel ability to swim and surf on the water’s surface, while using vibrations in the water to help hunt its prey.

"Physics is all about waves; understanding the universe is all about waves," Greene said when the spider was presented to him at the opening of the World Science Festival in Brisbane this week, according to Mashable Australia's Geraldine Cremin. “With the announcement last month of humankind’s first detection of gravitational waves—ripples on the surface of space and time—I am particularly honored to be so closely associated with a spider that has its own deep affinity for waves."

Because the spiders are such strong swimmers, they can catch prey up to three times their size, including small fish and toads. When disturbed, the spider can even dive and hide underneath the water for up to an hour before resurfacing, Erik Shilling writes for Atlas Obscura.

"These spiders sit there on the water and then all of a sudden an insect will hit the water and the spider races out to get it, grabs it, dives under the water and then swims back to the shore and starts eating it," Robert Raven, Principal Scientist of Arachnology at Brisbane, Australia’s Queensland Museum, tells Cremin.

Researchers didn’t have to go far to find the “Brian” spider: as it turns out, the species is native to freshwater streams around Brisbane. In fact, it seems that the spider has long been a stealthy ally in the fight against pests like the infamous cane toad, the AAP reports. The researchers found that the palm-sized spider has a significant impact on managing the invasive toad in the region by hunting it for food. However, while it may be big, people have nothing to fear from this particular arachnid.

"I've been bitten by this spider and it’s not particularly dangerous," Raven tells Cremin. "It just stung for a little while."

The “Brian” spider will soon be on public, permanent display at the Queensland Museum.

[Alyrium Denryle]

So a palm-sized spider is the only animal that could help to stop the cane-toad?

Australia, you are a fucked up country...

Fishing spiders are awesome. The thing is, even the skin of cane toad tadpoles is highly toxic. Snake eats it, snake dies. More importantly, if a fish eats it, the fish dies. Other invertebrates can eat them because they are not susceptible to the same toxins. So dragonfly nymphs, belastomatids and dytiscids can still eat them in temporary waters (flood-filled ponds etc. Anything without fish). But fish usually eat the hell out of those predators where they are present (some of the invert predators can survive, but their populations and predatory efficacy is reduced), leaving cane toads with very few viable predators. In their native habitat, fish can exclude most toads from breeding in a given pond because the tadpoles wont survive that particular predator (even the toxic ones. In S. America, the fish that eat cane toad tadpoles do a better job handling the toxins).

Dolomedes are big enough to not be eaten by most fish, in fact, they eat the fish. They also nom tadpoles.

[Purple]

I said it before and I'll say it again. That place is a death world.

[Zeropoint]

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