Travis McEnery

YouTube video by Travis McEnery The Tan Jumping Spider - The Spiders in Your House

Hustled to get this one finished before other responsibilities called. Let me know what you think (and please share!)

youtu.be/Zb31XOuU-FM

A computer screen showing a GIMP window with a drawing of a shape that looks like a bright red speedo.

Trying to draw a diagram of a salticid retina for a video and accidentally drew a speedo.

A Western Lynx spider, Oxyopes scalaris, sucks on his toe thoughtfully on a white background.

Working on a video and came across this photo of this very thoughtful-looking Western Lynx spider and thought it was adorable. So I thought I'd share.

#Pentax K-5ii

This moment from our latest episode with science writer @edyong209.bsky.social is 🔥

We asked Ed — how do we talk up the benefits of science in the face of government cuts? He told us that's the wrong approach. 🧪

Listen wherever, or watch on Spotify 👇

open.spotify.com/episode/7Evh...

YouTube video by 7 Days of Science The Ants That Broke Biology

So, this is wild. I don't know a lot about ants but this seems like a pretty major discovery.

youtu.be/Z-O4_AwWpfI?...

Tried to film Dana grabbing her dinner tonight and vastly underestimated the distance and speed at which she can sense - and strike - prey. This genus of spiders absolutely astounds me.

I think that refers to an insect, not a spider, that skins along the water's surface.

A six-spotted fishing spider, Dolomedes triton, on the surface of the water near a rock.

A species I don't often get to see, I came across this lovely little Dolomedes triton yesterday, the Six-spotted fishing spider. I didn't realize how comfortable they are when fully submerged, with a layer of air sticking to them. And they're instantly dry when they resurface. Love these spoods.

Me too, actually. Trying to acquire some Dysdera crocata, woodlouse hunters. They're a six-eyed species.

There are 8, but it would be difficult to tell from this photo.

A juvenile Larinioides sclopetarius at the hub of her (?) web.

Today was a bit rough but this lovely picture of my little Larinioides made it a bit brighter.

This is definitely the coolest pitfall traps I've ever seen.

@cataranea.bsky.social , @ibycter.bsky.social

This is incredibly cool!

I mean why not...

A spider in a Rubbermaid dish pan stubbornly refuses to stay on a perfectly good rock, despite clearly detesting the feeling of the plastic

Trying to photograph a spider:

ME: You'll hate the plastic tub, here's a nice rock to sit on like where you came from

SPIDER: No I don't think I will

ME: Please just get on the rock for a nice picture

SPIDER: No we hates it

ME: Could you just

SPIDER: We hates you too

Okay, this is kinda wild. @xcspence.bsky.social , you might love this.

YouTube video by Travis McEnery I Spent 3 Days with Spider Scientists - Here's What I Learned

This one is a little different, but if you want to see how some spider science gets done (and how you can do it, too), you can see what I learned from @cataranea.bsky.social and @ibycter.bsky.social when they put me up for three days in St. John's!

youtu.be/6c2XqAsHnuo

Any of my Bluesky people out there have experience identifying Ctenids? Bonus points if you're in Arizona. Asking for a friend.

An AI generated image of what looks like a bathroom, with a coiled-up drain cleaning cable the size of a Volkswagen hanging on the wall, which is apparently also a portal to another bathroom with a weirdly duplicated bathtub, atop which a woman in her underwear with long hair but apparently no head stands on one of her two-and-a-half legs and reaches for something on the ceiling. Also there's a stack of towelgloves in the corner of the first bathroom with a somewhat normal-looking woman standing and looking into a mirror. It's wild.

Some of Temu's AI-generated product images are something else. I just... don't know what to say about this one.

I'm not breeding them, just keeping them for observation. It's an interesting study in site fidelity as well.

A bass guitar in the foreground, with two frames behind it each containing an orb-weaving spider, and two more guitars hanging on the wall in the background.

Trying to record music in my office and a major challenge is moving instruments around without putting them right through the webs of my orb weavers.

So with the size of the wildfires here in Nova Scotia being expressed in hectares, helpful people put this graphic on the internet and the math is right but WHY ARE THEY NOT SQUARES???

Tiniest little slender brown spider with the trademark big black ogre-face spider eyes peering shyly straight ahead, legs stretched straight ahead and behind

The tiny creature next to the tip of my thumb, barely as long as my thumb is wide

May I offer you the tiniest baby Ogre in these trying times 🤎
#EmotionalSupportSpood

YouTube video by Travis McEnery The Running Crab Spider - The Spiders in Your House

After about a million delays, this is finally done.

youtu.be/KLxyMur7JZ8

A preserved Philodromus praelustris, a resplendent running crab spider.

A through-the-eyepiece view of the claw tuft of a resplendent running crab spider, shot on a phone with a kids' toy microscope.

When you need a picture of a spider's claw tuft and the only instrument you have that gets close enough is your kids' old toy microscope. Kinda blurry but it's visible!

This little tiny Larinioides tho...
(Whole spider is maybe the size of a lentil)

That's the ID I'm getting from other experienced folks, too, so that's almost definitely it. Those suggestions were kinda funny though.

A screenshot of an iNaturalist observation being made using a photo of what is very clearly a spider, and the suggested ID'S range from Green Pepe to glow worms to bats, with not a spider of any kind making the list.

iNaturalist is normally pretty good at figuring out whatever I throw at it, but it seems to be having a real bad day today.

Still don't know what spider this is, but I'm pretty sure it's not a bat.

Finally saw Revenge of the Sith, and I cannot believe there are really people out there who think it's the best film of the franchise. There are exactly two contenders for that title: The Empire Strikes Back, and Rogue One. I'm not actually sure which of those two wins.

I will die on this hill.