And so, the world outside is currently covered in snow. And that raises 
a very important question: How do spiders survive this weather?

As far as I know, there's only one multicellular animal that can survive 
actually being frozen solid. (It's a small frog that lives in the Andes. 
Every winter it freezes solid, yet in the spring when it thaws it's 
miraculously still alive.) Normally the growing ice crystals rip through 
cell membranes, killing the organism.

Given that the world outside is under about 5 cm of snow right now, with 

invertabrat with no capacity for heat generation remains alive. But 
alive they somehow remain...

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fried_spider

"Friendly fire"?

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"Invisible" <voi### [at] devnull> wrote in message 
news:4988108c$1@news.povray.org...
> Given that the world outside is under about 5 cm of snow right now, with 

> invertabrat with no capacity for heat generation remains alive. But alive 
> they somehow remain...

life is an unstoppable force ....

about two weeks ago it was -25C for days. I mean air snappin' cold. The 
ground was solid as a rock. A warm front comes through and the temp shoots 
up to +3C and I'll be damned .... I saw a mosquito.

Jim

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Jim Holsenback wrote:

> life is an unstoppable force ....
> 
> about two weeks ago it was -25C for days. I mean air snappin' cold. The 
> ground was solid as a rock. A warm front comes through and the temp shoots 
> up to +3C and I'll be damned .... I saw a mosquito.

Hmm. Well mosquitos spend most of their lives as aquatic larvae. 
Presumably not all the watercourses in your area froze solid to the very 
bottom?

I presume you terminated it with extreme prejusdis? ;-)

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Don't know about spiders, but insects employ two strategies that I know of. 
One is to burrow into the ground below the frost line. The other is to 
replace their blood (hemolymph) with a substance with a much lower freezing 
point than water (glycerol?).

Right about now the skunk cabbages are getting ready to bloom. They are able 
to melt the snow and ice around their flowers by generating mass amounts of 
heat.


"Invisible" <voi### [at] devnull> wrote in message 
news:4988108c$1@news.povray.org...
> And so, the world outside is currently covered in snow. And that raises a 
> very important question: How do spiders survive this weather?
>
> As far as I know, there's only one multicellular animal that can survive 
> actually being frozen solid. (It's a small frog that lives in the Andes. 
> Every winter it freezes solid, yet in the spring when it thaws it's 
> miraculously still alive.) Normally the growing ice crystals rip through 
> cell membranes, killing the organism.
>
> Given that the world outside is under about 5 cm of snow right now, with 

> invertabrat with no capacity for heat generation remains alive. But alive 
> they somehow remain...

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"Mike Hough" <nos### [at] nospamcom> wrote in message 
news:4988317f@news.povray.org...
> Don't know about spiders, but insects employ two strategies that I know 
> of. One is to burrow into the ground below the frost line. The other is to 
> replace their blood (hemolymph) with a substance with a much lower 
> freezing point than water (glycerol?).
>
> Right about now the skunk cabbages are getting ready to bloom. They are 
> able to melt the snow and ice around their flowers by generating mass 
> amounts of heat.

Mother nature is pretty amazing  isn't she?
I saw a piece on a very small tree frog that borrows into ground and it's 
actually frozen there until the spring thaw.
The opposite end of the spectrum ... those tube worms living near those 
volcanic vents at the bottom of the ocean.

Like I said life is an unstoppable force.

Jim

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Jim Holsenback wrote:

> Mother nature is pretty amazing  isn't she?

Amazing... terrifying... one or he other. (My mum is still creeped out 
by the 4-foot millipede that catches and eats live bats.)

> I saw a piece on a very small tree frog that borrows into ground and it's 
> actually frozen there until the spring thaw.

Yeah. I think that's the Andean frog I mentioned.

It's cells have antifreeze, and the intercellular space has a chemical 
which *prmotes* freezing. The net result is that the space between the 
cells freezes, but the cells themselves do not. In essense, the animal 
becomes a colony of single-celled organisms for a few months.

> The opposite end of the spectrum ... those tube worms living near those 
> volcanic vents at the bottom of the ocean.
> 
> Like I said life is an unstoppable force.

There are bacteria that live *in* those volcanic vents, never mind 
"near" them. ;-)

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Invisible wrote:
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fried_spider
> 
> "Friendly fire"?

Umm. No thanks. I'll pass. Thanks for offering though.

-- 
~Mike

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"Invisible" <voi### [at] devnull> wrote in message 
news:49883853$1@news.povray.org...
> Yeah. I think that's the Andean frog I mentioned.

The one I saw was from NE US .... Maine I believe. I saw it on Jeff Corwin.
Cool!! .... same thing from two diff species in two diff places.

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Mike Hough wrote:
> Don't know about spiders, but insects employ two strategies that I know of. 

Number three is to lay eggs and die, and let the eggs hatch in the spring. 
The egs, being much simpler, don't have the same problems. (Or maybe just 
have less water in them or something.)

-- 
   Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
   "Ouch ouch ouch!"
   "What's wrong? Noodles too hot?"
   "No, I have Chopstick Tunnel Syndrome."

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