Board Thread:Suggestions forum/@comment-27388204-20160110035025/@comment-27388204-20160112090055

AlteOgre wrote: Faenor of the Silver Laurel wrote: Actually, it is evidence, as seen through data gathered from a single specimen. Evidence of behaviour, not explaining it.

An explanation: These creatures reduce their activity during daytime to reduce the risk if their bodies overheating as they have limited capacity to release heat. This would also be sufficient explanation for both scorpions and spiders to not pro-actively attack potential threats. The Mirkwood climate may however not be too hot for them to have to switch to passive mode in daytime. The size of the creatures also matters: the bigger the creature, the higher the overheating risk. This could explain the presence of very large spiders in the relatively cold Mirkwood anyway.

So, the notion of spiders and exoskeleton armoured megabugs turning inactive during the heat of day makes sense. No more reservations afaic. :)

Edit: Just realized I'm mixing things up here, as spiders don't have exoskeletons and less of an overheating blem. If I recall correctly they couldn't grow this large anyway, unless ... we'd assume the giant spiders of Middle-Earth have actually developed a soft exoskeleton at the cost of ... cooling capacity ... nah ... idk ... Your have provided a good explanation, however, I was referencing in high light levels, rather than overheating, as a source of daytime docility for scorpions, seeing as they do not hunt properly in bright light, which in fact stresses them if they are excessively exposed to it. Also, as the size of these creatures needs to be considered (I understand that these scorpions are larger than their real-life counterparts), one may think that these massive scorpions may be much more aggressive than normal scorpions, however, real-life scorpions still exhibit docile, even passive behaviour towards creatures their own size in high light levels (once again, I am not worrying about heat being a factor, in spite of scorpions being ectothermic, I have never seen their aggression being noticeably affected by temperature). Also, I have observed this behaviour to be constant between the four different scorpion species I have posesssed and observed day and night (Liocheles waigienses, Urodacus manicatus, Urodacus yaschenkoi, and Lychas marmoreus), the first of which is a rainforest-dwelling species, the following two being arid-zone species, and the last being accustomed to both these habitats.

Finally, spiders in fact do have exoskeletons, though, with the exception of the Liphistomorphs (of which only one genus, Mesothelae remains alive), they have soft abdomens. The rest of their body is, however, covered in exoskeleton, particularly obvious in Mygalomorph spiders. I also wasn't suggesting that Mordor/Mirkwood spiders become placid during the day anyways.

I hope I have made my objectives clear