Trick or Treat? Pholcus phalangioides eats pumpkin!

E

EricSJCA

First Instar
Happy Halloween!​
After my son scooped out a pumpkin he was carving, I fed some of it to a terrerium full of detritivores (roaches and isopods), and a small piece fell into the web of an invading Pholcus phalangioides.​
Not only did the cellar spider start eating the pumpkin, but it wrapped it in web, and is still eating in over 30 minutes later.​
 
This is awesome. Did it eat the whole thing? Is it possible it just considered the pumpkin an invader and webbed it up to dispatch of it neatly? If spiders are eating vegetables... 

 
Axolotl said:
This is awesome. Did it eat the whole thing? Is it possible it just considered the pumpkin an invader and webbed it up to dispatch of it neatly? If spiders are eating vegetables... 
Click to expand...
Did you see the "spider herbivory is widespread" research papers?

 
I’m currently experimenting with webspider herbivory; webspiders seem less physically capable of encountering edible plant matter than foraging hunters (salticids, Trachelas, lycosids, etc.) although orbweavers are known to feed on trapped pollen

here is a somewhat blurry video I produced last night



 
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