Development

As it has been quite cold, there are few invertebrates about and therefore I cling to the few that are! So today I revisited the spider for the 4th time (blips of 5th and 22nd of February and 3rd of March) and I'm happy to let you know about the development. Despite the cold weather, the spider, which I'm quite sure by now that is a female, has mated with a male spider in a desperate attempt to pass on its genes. I didn't actually see them mate, so I'm just guessing, based on the abdomenless spider body hanging down from the stickseeds under what I now believe is a nest. As you know, sometimes the female spiders eat the male spider after mating (sometimes even while mating) because they are hungry, and I'm sure that in these insect-poor, cold, late-winter days, this female spider was very, very hungry. After all she is a protective mother that does what is needed to pass on her genes to maintain the species.

And without any relation to what I've written above, Happy international women's day to all blip-women out there