Brian loves hunting fish, going swimming, and being a spider

[HuckleB]

http://www.theverge.com/2016/3/11/11204102/brian-the-amazing-fishing-spider

"Say hello to Brian, full name Dolomedes briangreenei, the most recently discovered spider in Australia. (Although considering it's Australia, it's probably only the 10th most recently discovered spider now). According to a report from Mashable Australia, Brian was revealed at the World Science Festival in Brisbane on Wednesday, and loves fresh water streams, going for long swims, and sitting motionless on ponds waiting to devour its prey. How sweet!

Robert Raven, Queensland Museum's principal arachnologist, told Mashable: "These spiders sit there on the water and then all of a sudden an insect will hit the water and the spider races out to get it, grabs it, dives under the water and then swims back to the shore and starts eating it."

Water spiders like Brian in the Dolomedes genus use their legs to feel for vibrations in the water caused by prey, using these signals to hunt and kill insects and fish up to three times their size (although they're not at all dangerous to humans). This is impressive, certainly, but fish-hunting spiders are pretty common and found in many places around the world. Just check out this vintage wildlife footage of a British great raft spider, hunting and killing a stickleback:

Obviously Dolomedes briangreenei's discoverers had to do something to make their new species stand out, and settled on giving it an exotic name: Brian. This was chosen in honor of physicist Brian Greene, who was on hand at the Queensland Museum to meet his namesake, and was able to quickly establish some common ground.

..."


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This is one cool spider.

[Initech]

1. That thing looks like it could kill you with a dead stare.

[HuckleB]

2. He's got the look, indeed! -eom-