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Cute Spider - Blog Posts
Vida's Sheep Jumping Spider: researchers believe that these tiny spiders developed their "woolly" appearance as a way to mimic lacewing larvae or scale insects
The scientific name for this species is Oviballus vidae, but it has also been referred to as the "sheepy jumping spider" or "Vida's jumping spider." It was discovered in 2015, and first described (in a formal context) back in 2020.
As this article (PDF) describes:
Recently, two new salticids, R. legitima and Oviballus vidae were described from South Africa, and suggested to be mimics of either scale insects (Hemiptera: Coccoidea) or lacewing larvae (Neuroptera: Chrysopidae), due to their white colouration and the presence of peculiar tufts of white setae on the body.
The possibility of [scale insects] being the model is supported by Oviballus vidae being regularly collected from plants with woolly scales, although the movements of O. vidae quite closely resemble those of chrysopid larvae.
In fact, a fourth species of possible scale mimic, a new Rhene species, was recently discovered in a collection of salticids from southern Mozambique, indicating that this phenomenon may be more widespread than has previously been known or even suspected.
O. vidae was named after Vida van der Walt, the photographer who captured some of the first images of these spiders back in 2015, just after the species was discovered by Dr. Galina Azarkina. Vida van der Walt also took the photographs that appear in this post.
Sources & More Info:
Arthropoda Selecta (scientific journal): Rediscovery and Redescription of Rhene cooperi, another possible mimic of scale insects (PDF)
Spider Club of South Africa: Two New Species Named After SA Photographer (PDF, with the relevant info on page 5)
Field Guide to the Spiders of South Africa: Section on Vida's Sheep Jumping Spider
It's been a long time since i posted... well... anything. A lot happened since then.
I finished school, battled covid, got into uni (a vet major), made a couple of animal skeltons (will post about it soon), made a YouTube channell for a first time in years, lost a friend in a car crash and so on and so forth...
Also improved my english skills a little, which I am a little bit proud of
Anyways, here are some of my works that i did through the years
A ✨ magical bull ✨ my english teacher requestet for her daughter for New years (she insisted on giving me money for it although she didn't have to)
A chonky pug keychain I made for my classmate's birthday
A funky spider for my close friend's birthday
That's pretty much it (apart from a couple ones that my dumb ahh forgot to take a photo of before gifting them)
I got in a lot of fandoms during these years, the list of which you can find in the description of my tiny YouTube animation channell. If somebody suddenly (for whatever unknown for me reason) got interested in it — you can leave a comment and I'll leave a link
Toodles 👋
(why do I even bother, no one's going to read this)
He is so comfortable in his sweater :3
(｡･ω･｡)🕷️💜
