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[Dwarf4Explosives]

So, further spider questions for the project.
What color is spider venom usually? And does a spider's leg become noticeably thicker than it is at the tip at any point?

[WillowLuman]

1) Colorless, but probably depends on species
2) All spider legs taper from base to point, but not always noticeably.

[LeoLeonardoIII]

If it has eight legs and a bubble butt everyone's gonna think SPIDER whether it's anatomically correct or not. I'm pretty sure as long as you make it as big as possible everyone will be happy.

[alway]

After some searching the internet and watching a segment about the Carbonian period, turns out the biggest spider ever was slightly larger than a cat

Yep; exoskeletons stop working when you get up in size. And way before that, they get super-fragile. Large-ish tarantulas, like those sold as pets, really can't survive falls very well. Their exoskeletons tend to crack, resulting in death.

Part of that is the classic square-cube laws relating to material strength, part of it is fluid dynamics relating to the fact that spiders move via hydraulics.

It's also why you don't have jumping spiders bigger than about the size in that video; they would have a lot of trouble getting enough speed and strength to take down larger prey, while injury would be much more common and deadly. Most are only a couple millimeters in size.

[Dwarf4Explosives]

Even worse is the fact that a spider's nervous system starts to get in the way of it's breathing at large sizes. But then again, what I'm doing is making an alien spider out of LEGO (at a scale which makes it 300 by 550 meters at least); realism doesn't come into it. Incidentally, does anyone know whether pneumatics work better than hydraulics? Otherwise I'm going to have to come up with an alternative movement system that works better at that size myself.

[WillowLuman]

Look at wikipedia. I think that hydraulics are better for larger-scale, but pneumatics are better for man-portable or smaller.

[LeoLeonardoIII]

Steam, definitely.

[GlyphGryph]

Speaking of giant spiders, I'm working on a LEGO model of a spider which is approximately Shelob's size in real life. So I'm wondering, in the interest of scientific accuracy, are there jumping spiders that have functional spinnerets as well?

All spiders (as far as I've seen) have functioning spinnerets (and some have silk glands elsewhere in the body). Jumping spiders don't build webs, but they do use drag lines for more accurate jumping over long distances, making themselves a temporary stabilizing "tail" of silk. It also allows them to more precisely control where they stop by parachuting it out a bit and changing their momentum for mid-air flight control.

[Beast Tamer]

...A..spider thread. Ahh.

PTW...

Beware, somebody has a tarantula avatar now. It's not particularly scary, but it might be a bit of a shock if it catches you off-guard.

Did somebody mention me!?

[LeoLeonardoIII]

Might be someone else with a tarantula avatar.

[HAMMERMILL]

Well I guess this forum is nothing but very splendid princesses of various noble backgrounds to be so dreafully concerned with spiders, as in actual arachnid spiders that are just in the house or whatever.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqZNMvIEHhs

The term 'spiders' always reminds me of this song though, but I think the word is symbolic for something else in this case.

[Dwarf4Explosives]

All spiders (as far as I've seen) have functioning spinnerets (and some have silk glands elsewhere in the body). Jumping spiders don't build webs, but they do use drag lines for more accurate jumping over long distances, making themselves a temporary stabilizing "tail" of silk. It also allows them to more precisely control where they stop by parachuting it out a bit and changing their momentum for mid-air flight control.

Excellent. At this size there's no reason for it to build webs anyway, and I've heard stories about spiders using "parachutes". Also, I've  finally figured out how to motorize the last of the necessary mechanical features for the Arachnia malabdomen (the system to inject poison).

[scrdest]

All spiders (as far as I've seen) have functioning spinnerets (and some have silk glands elsewhere in the body). Jumping spiders don't build webs, but they do use drag lines for more accurate jumping over long distances, making themselves a temporary stabilizing "tail" of silk. It also allows them to more precisely control where they stop by parachuting it out a bit and changing their momentum for mid-air flight control.

Excellent. At this size there's no reason for it to build webs anyway, and I've heard stories about spiders using "parachutes". Also, I've  finally figured out how to motorize the last of the necessary mechanical features for the Arachnia malabdomen (the system to inject poison).

Are you in charge of making props for Spiderman's gritty reboot?

[Dwarf4Explosives]

Heh heh, nope . I don't even like Spiderman. I can tell you this, though: checking the specifications of the program I'm using shows that the project will hit the upper limit of the program's capabilities long before it's done. I'm going to have to switch to a different one just to get it done right.

Any suggestions for a logical energy source for a creature on a planet without an atmosphere? I want to keep the breathing holes, but the only logical (and considering the "base" color of the spider, most fitting) way seems to be photosynthesis.

[GlyphGryph]

Why does the planet not have an atmosphere?

If it's forzen, what you could do is have large amounts of o2 or some other gas exist in the surface layer and have the critters dig for it, and have stationary critters that produce it through photosynthesis (and then store it) for other critters to leech off, etc.