Talk:Euophrys omnisuperstes

Beware of the image on flickr

There is an image of this spider on Flickr, but if examined under magnification it is clear that it has been taken from the catalog of copyrighted images at: http://piclib.nhm.ac.uk/piclib/www/comp.php?img=46949&frm=med&search=high

I have put a link to this image in the article, but I have also notified Flickr that one of their users is claiming to have produced an image by somebody else. Presumably the actual photographer would have his own un-"watermarked" photo. P0M (talk) 04:14, 2 August 2008 (UTC)

Circular reference

This article is citing the BBC article http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/life/Euophrys_omnisuperstes, which in turn is citing this one. (Also, there seems to be a bit of confusion as to whether the spider feeds on insects that have been blown up the mountain, or if it is the insects that feed on material blown up the mountain). Iapetus (talk) 12:16, 26 March 2013 (UTC)

@Wardog: a rather belated reply, but in reading the original sources, it seems to me that only Swan (1961) has published actual observations, and he nowhere says that the insects (flies and springtails) were blown up the mountains, only that at the highest levels springtails may be surviving by feeding on wind-blown debris, including pollen. Even this is clearly speculative, as he writes "clearly suggests that they [springtails] subsist on wind-blown organic debris" and "they must surely be present at still higher altitudes". So I've removed the claim based on the BBC article that the spider feeds on wind-blown insects. Peter coxhead (talk) 19:15, 10 September 2017 (UTC)

Assessment comment

The comment(s) below were originally left at Talk:Euophrys omnisuperstes/Comments, and are posted here for posterity. Following several discussions in past years, these subpages are now deprecated. The comments may be irrelevant or outdated; if so, please feel free to remove this section.

cannot find good sources on this one --Sarefo 13:33, 31 July 2006 (UTC)

Substituted at 01:00, 12 June 2016 (UTC)

Sources now located and being used. Peter coxhead (talk) 09:31, 10 September 2017 (UTC)

Whether they are "good" by the standards of WP:RS is another matter. There are basically only two sources of non-copied information that I can find, both journal/magazine articles: Swan (1961) in the Scientific American on the distribution, habitat and ecology, and Wanless (1975) on the description and taxonomy. Other sources make statements that don't seem to be supported by these:

• "at the highest levels the spiders subsist on wind-blown insects" – source speculates that they subsist on springtails that feed on wind-blown debris
• "they are the highest-living animals" – source speculates that they live on springtails even at the highest level, so they cannot be living higher than their prey.

Peter coxhead (talk) 09:31, 11 September 2017 (UTC)

Toxic

The article doesn't say how this tiny spider is "toxic" so I have removed that from the intro.

When I was a graduate student in zoology, I participated in a seminar on speciation and I wrote a paper and gave a lecture on jumping spiders, which are very diverse, making them a interesting topic for that subject. (Courtship rituals, dispersion by the wind, and the risk of being eaten for making a mistake are some things to be considered.) In the paper I mentioned that jumping spiders were found everywhere, and even at altitudes of 20,000 feet in the Himalayas. Someone asked me, what did they eat, and I joked, "Each other." I was not aware of Hingston's research at that time. When I was questioned further, I suggested springtails. Wastrel Way (talk)Eric Wastrel Way (talk) 04:36, 27 October 2023 (UTC)