A Conspiracy of Bones: good
Just after 1:30 AM I finished A Conspiracy of Bones, A Temperance Brennan Novel Book 19, by Kathy Reichs. While I did miss the lab work by Brennan a lot, I still consider it a good read.
An Overlooked Molt
After feeding the Hapalopus sp. Colombia "large", a dwarf tarantula sling I keep, I suddenly noticed a molt attached to the underside of the piece of cork bark the spider hides under.
I already suspected this little tarantula had molted when writing a blog entry the 18th of June which I linked to a post written the 18th of May. Each post shows the Hapalopus sp. with a mealworm, but the tarantula looks smaller and less colorfull in the older post.
And just now I had found proof that it had indeed molted somewhere between those two dates.
Giving water to a Caribena versicolor
In the afternoon I used a dosing syringe to add some water to a small terrarium in which I keep a Caribena versicolor sling. I moistened a part of the substrate furthest away from the cork bark the little spider resides most of the time and also put a few droplets on the corkbark itself.
The spider walked around while I was doing this until it encountered a droplet. Then it started to drink. I got my iPhone 5 ready; attached a macro lens and a LED ring light which I had bought the 17th of June. But when I moved the phone close I bumped against the enclosure and scared the tarantula away from the water droplet, hence the above photo of the spider next to the droplet.
Spiders of the World
While watching WWDC Special Event Keynote on my iPhone 5 the doorbell rang. Another Father's day present!
A book: Spiders of the World: A Natural History, edited by the late Norman I. Platnick with contributions by Rudy Jocqué, Gustavo Hormiga, Robert Raven, Martín J. Ramírez, and Peter Jäger.
Browsing through the book it turned out to be fantastic; wonderful photos and explanatory text. I can't wait to read this book. Based on the photos alone highly recommended if you are interested in our eight legged friends.