Like most arachnids including scorpions, spiders have a narrow gut that can only cope with liquid food and spiders have two sets of filters to keep solids out. They use one of two different systems of external digestion. Some pump digestive enzymes from the midgut into the prey and then suck the liquified tissues of the prey into the gut, eventually leaving behind the empty husk of the prey. Others grind the prey to pulp using the chelicerae and the bases of the pedipalps, while flooding it with enzymes; in these species the chelicerae and the bases of the pedipalps form a preoral cavity that holds the food they are processing.
The stomach in the cephalothorax acts as a pump that sends the food deeper into the digestive system. The mid gut bears many digestive ceca, compartments with no other exit, that extract nutrients from the food; most are in the abdomen, which is dominated by the digestive system, but a few are found in the cephalothorax.
Truly the finest prop spider I have ever seen.
Image source.
Thursday, October 1, 2009
8 Eyes
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7 comments:
This should be a prologue to every giat spider horror movie ever made. It puts a whole new perspective on the idea!
I agree--an outstanding example of the talent and hard work (and in this case, the precision!) that goes into so many Halloween props. Five stars to this artist!
Great, I was having trouble sleeping with that in the front yard.....now, yeah, definitely going to have nightmares.
Thanks for the mention. The crew did a great job on that. You cannot see it, but the cocoon spins and there is a big fly with a human head on it....we have the sound clip from the movie mixed in the sound track :)
Cheers!
The Frog Queen and her friends/family at Davis Graveyard are phenomenal, no question about it.
And her spider gives me the heebie-jeebies.
Crazy, I work as a death investigator and that gave me the heebie geebies!
When I did the original concept sketch (yes, I work with Froggy) I never dreamed the final product would be: a) so close to the concept, and, b)so much BETTER than the concept!
Huge props to Daniel and Elys.
Looks really good. My grandfather and I used to do stuff like that when I was little. We would set up a trail through the woods to scare everyone 'Trail of Terror' we used to call it. Seeing this I think I should get back into making stuff again, rather than just buying what I see at the Halloween store.
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