Scientists discover spider milk

[MoonDust]

Quick! Call Richard Not Judy!

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/nov/29/scientists-discover-spider-species-that-feeds-its-young-milk?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Copy_to_clipboard

Genuinely fucking madness. Be like finding a cold blooded ape. Or a giant egg that shits birds. Biology all wrong.

[biggytitbo]

Has this got anything to do with that massive cow? Seems a bit of a coincidence.

[MoonDust]

It's a cownspiracy. Silk and milk. Smilk.

[MoonDust]

Nah but it's a bit mad innit? Are there going to be a load of taxonomists having existential crises? Can't define mammals as creatures that nurse their young on milk anymore. Idiots.

[Replies From View]

I wonder if spiders share our primal fear of Humphreys.

[NoSleep]

Are there spider nipples?

[MoonDust]

Are there spider nipples?

Apparently they suckle from the same place the eggs came from.

Not sure if that's more or less weird than the platypus, which instead of having nipples, sweats milk from all over.

[king_tubby]

They all sweat milk from all over by the time I've finished with them.

[im barry bethel]

It's a cownspiracy. Silk and milk. Smilk.

Witherspoon's post BREXIT replacement for surf & turf

[to infect aside]

Those spiders getting breastfed almost until adulthood are probably all weird & gimpy.

[ZoyzaSorris]

Nah but it's a bit mad innit? Are there going to be a load of taxonomists having existential crises? Can't define mammals as creatures that nurse their young on milk anymore. Idiots.

Awful science reporting from the Guardian, to match their general descent into dreadful pointlessness in all fields. The first paragraph is complete clickbait tripe. As noted further down in the same article, there are plenty of instances of animals other than mammals feeding their young nutritious secretions from some part of their body, whether you want to call it 'milk' or not. Beyond the useless presentation of this story, interesting stuff though!

The main point of interest is the level of parental care, which is unusual in invertebrates, i believe (though not of course unique. Is honey bee milk?)

[NoSleep]

Apparently they suckle from the same place the eggs came from.

The spider vagina? It can't be milk then can it? They're just dumbing it down for the average Guardian reader.

Not sure if that's more or less weird than the platypus, which instead of having nipples, sweats milk from all over.

Mammary glands have evolved from sweat glands. That is probably why sweaty socks smell like cheese.

[Twed]

Snakes make Dairylea Triangles

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

Does whatever a spider dilk.
This doesn't mean that spiders aren't evil all of a sudden.

[NoSleep]

This doesn't mean that spiders aren't evil all of a sudden.

But they're still very tiny, even the allegedly "big" ones.

[biggytitbo]

I've seen a video on the internet where Spider Man gets 'milked' by Mary Jane. I'm not sure if it was an official Marvel production as the cinematography was a bit murky and only lasted 8 minutes.

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

But they're still very tiny, even the allegedly "big" ones.

The Ebola virus is tiny, but you wouldn't want any of that.

[MoonDust]

To the naysayers saying it's dumbed down news and not really milk, did you read the link to the original research paper at the end of the Guardian article? It was published in Science and says:

Lactation is a mammalian attribute, and the few known nonmammal examples have distinctly different modalities. We document here milk provisioning in a jumping spider, which compares functionally and behaviorally to lactation in mammals. The spiderlings ingest nutritious milk droplets secreted from the mother's epigastric furrow until the subadult stage. Milk is indispensable for offspring survival in the early stages and complements their foraging in later stages. Maternal care, as for some long-lived vertebrates, continues after the offspring reach maturity. Furthermore, a female-biased adult sex ratio is acquired only when the mother is present. These findings demonstrate that mammal-like milk provisioning and parental care for sexually mature offspring have also evolved in invertebrates, encouraging a reevaluation of their occurrence across the animal kingdom, especially in invertebrates.

The authors themselves call it milk and point out it differs from the other non-mammal examples already given in this thread.

It's spider milk. The truth hurts.

[NoSleep]

The Ebola virus is tiny, but you wouldn't want any of that.

Whilst I don't hold out such a welcome for ebola, I permit the little spiders to share my house. Who knows what evils they devour.

[MoonDust]

Further links saying the same thing:

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2186972-some-spiders-produce-milk-and-its-more-nutritious-than-cows-milk/

And from Sciencemag, the magazine affiliate to the Science journal:

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/11/spider-moms-spotted-nursing-their-offspring-milk


Not dumbed down Guardian journalism.

[NoSleep]

To the naysayers saying it's dumbed down news and not really milk, did you read the link to the original research paper at the end of the Guardian article? It was published in Science and says:

The authors themselves call it milk and point out it differs from the other non-mammal examples already given in this thread.

It's spider milk. The truth hurts.

Yes, they dumbed it down.

Definition of milk

1a : a fluid secreted by the mammary glands of females for the nourishment of their young

b(1) : milk from an animal and especially a cow used as food by people

(2) : a food product produced from seeds or fruit that resembles and is used similarly to cow's milk coconut milk soy milk

2 : a liquid resembling milk in appearance: such as

a : the latex of a plant

b : the contents of an unripe kernel of grain

3 : lactation cows in milk

Does this spider liquid even resemble milk? Is it milky?

[MoonDust]

Yes. From the New Scientist article who spoke to the researchers.

"So Chen and his colleagues put mother spiders under the microscope and gently squeezed their abdomens. A few droplets of a creamy white fluid came out, something that looked very similar to human or other mammalian milk. Analysis found the milk-like liquid contains fat – and about four times as much protein as cow's milk."

[NoSleep]

The dairy industry is about to reel from another body blow, then. Spider cheese next.

[Brian Freeze]

You could potentially have Case Marzu made from spider milk that is being feasted on by the maggots from the Cheese Fly.
That's a mental image I wish I'd never had.

[Twit 2]

don't give a fuck about this

[Kryton]

Can a human drink it? That's what I wanna know.

[NoSleep]

Can a human drink it?

Corbyn-hating centrist dads who hang on Jonathan Freedland's every last word will lap it up.

[MoonDust]

Can a human drink it? That's what I wanna know.

It's only a matter of time. Sainsbury's are already selling roasted crickets.

Mind you how would you mass produce gallons of spider milk? Imagine what the inside of the barn looks like. The one the farmer always keeps locked and never talks about. Horrific.

[Brian Freeze]

Seeing as a cure for smallpox came from milking cows, just imagine the possibilities from spider juice.
Malaria? Baldness? Hangnails?

[biggytitbo]

I'd like to see someone milk a spider.