A common house spider was immobilized between two layers of transparent scotch tape and was imaged using a FoldScope that was equipped with a low-magnification (140x) lens, LED light module, condenser lens, magnetic camera coupler, and iPhone (5) camera.  The spider’s legs were coated in long hairs that often emerged from near the spider’s elbows/knees (see attached images).  This finding is consistent with previous observations that spiders contain both chemosensory and mechanosensory organs that sometimes resemble human hair (http://www.scholarpedia.org/article/A_spider’s_tactile_hairs).  In the future, it will be interesting to see if multiple types of hairs will become visible at high-magnification.


 <a alt="IMG_9172_cr.jpg" class="gcloudimg" href="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_11173/IMG_9172_cr.jpg">
 <img alt="IMG_9172_cr" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-11174 gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="11174" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_9172_cr" data-recalc-dims="1" height="245" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_11173/IMG_9172_cr.jpg" width="300"/>
 </a>
 <a alt="IMG_9185_cr.jpg" class="gcloudimg" href="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_11173/IMG_9185_cr.jpg">
 <img alt="IMG_9185_cr" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-11175 gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="11175" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_9185_cr" data-recalc-dims="1" height="300" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_11173/IMG_9185_cr.jpg" width="300"/>
 </a>
 <a alt="IMG_9193_cr.jpg" class="gcloudimg" href="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_11173/IMG_9193_cr.jpg">
 <img alt="IMG_9193_cr" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-11176 gcloudimg" data-attachment-id="11176" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="IMG_9193_cr" data-recalc-dims="1" height="300" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/microcosmosdelta.appspot.com/images/transfer_11173/IMG_9193_cr.jpg" width="300"/>
 </a>

Spiders have hairy legs!

Spiders have hairy legs!

pmooney3

More Posts from pmooney3