I did manage to find this tiny spider though on my kids’ slide.

This spider was incredibly tiny – requiring 5x magnification from my MP-E 65 to get this shot.  After downloading the shot, I looked through some of my books to attempt to get an ID – but after some investigation I can 100% say I have no idea what type of spider this is.

When my wife looked at the picture, she picked out an obvious mystery.  It only has six legs.

I thought for a bit on why this is so. 

1. It is an insect that mimics a spider.  I do not think this is so – mainly due to the arrangement of the legs (four on one side and two on the other) and the palps on the front.
2. It is a spider but has lost two of its legs.

I believe the second possibility is true.  Take a look at the side of the spider.

It looks like there are stubs where the two legs used to exist.  Here’s a closeup.

Why would this occur?  I’m not really entirely sure but I have read that when the spider attacks poisonous prey, sometimes it gets bitten in the leg as it grasps its prey.  When that happens, the spider will often amputate its own leg in order to stay alive.  Perhaps that is what happened here?

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.