• Some love for wolf spiders on Why Evolution is True. Yes, Lycosidae females are remarkable in carrying wee spiderlings around on their abdomen.

• Spider research in the 21st Century. Now that’s a book Araneologists will like on their bookshelf! I will order mine soon.

• Harmless spiders: It was a big week for my blog post on “Spiders do not Bite” – it showed up on Reddit and this resulted in almost 3,000 hits in a single day (a record-breaking day for me!). In those Reddit comments, someone posted the paper about a house in Kansas with over 2,000 brown recluse spiders. Guess what: NO envenomations occurred.

• Keep calm and kill them with fire. The comments on Reddit remind me that many people don’t like insects and spiders and will do a lot to kill them. (sigh).  Gotta love Bug Girl’s ”Incredibly Bad Ideas” (this week, featured a wildfire in Arizona started because kids tried to kill ants by burning them….)

• A spider hunt on the beach. Some lovely jumping spiders were found!

• Spidernauts. Had a nice chat this past week with Christina Russo about behaviour of jumping spiders in space. More specifically, we talked about Phidippus johnsoni – a species that went to space!   Do you think it’s just a coincident that that species was selected and that there’s a Johnson Space Center? Curious about how jumping spiders move in space? Have a look…

• So much paranoia about insects over the past week!  First up, CRAZY ANTS EAT ELECTRONICS!  Um, calm down everyone. Here’s the real story. Alex Wild also has also written about these crazy ants.

• Over in Florida – GIANT MUTANT MOSQUITOES!  IT’S SKEETER-GEDON. Um, calm down everyone, here’s the real story. (thanks UF Entomology!)

• Speaking of UF Entomology -they tweeted a lovely video of a black widow spider.

• How about those beetles in Canada! Here’s a pretty impressive list of new records!

• An avenue of ghosts in Cambridge – it’s all about the insects, really.

• Stunning, and I mean STUNNING biodiversity illustrations.

• Speaking of stunning, Alex Wild took some incredible photographs of a white-eyed Drosophila mutant.

A photo by Alex Wild, reproduced here with permission. See more of his work here.

• Get your buzz on.  Even CBC radio is in the mood to talk about Cicadas! (by the way, if you don’t listen to Tom Allen’s show in the afternoons… you should!)

• Crickets and the subway: I was reading Adam Gopnik’s “Paris to the Moon” and a reference was made to crickets staying ‘warm’ underground by living near the rail tracks. True story?  (More here about the secrets of the Paris Metro…)

• An Arctic puzzle: Aphids, Willow, Geese & Climate change. Fascinating article. (thanks to Matt Hill for alerting me to that paper)

• On the topic of the Arctic – Nansen’s legacy lives on. Incredible what Nansen explored…

• Hairy Mites! Macromite has a new post up. 

• How about Biodiversity & Beer. Species rarity, niches and so much more explained with beer. (thanks Carly for tweeting that video)

• And the tweet of the week goes to...@madeinlowell

• Bugs behind the walls… Wallcology as a way to teach kids about ecology. 

• Blogging for Academics. A terrific Prezi by Jon Tennant.

• How science education changes your drawing style. Wow.

• Fighting cancer, back in time. A story of a 120,000 year old Neanderthal with evidence of bone cancer (Jacquelyn Gill altered me to that story)

• Making music to forge a community. A heartwarming and lovely story. Superb. (thanks Peggy Curran)

• Don’t try this at home: Do it yourself brain stimulator. Sigh. Just not cool.

• Twitter feeds for poetry buffs. (thanks to Adam Taylor for the link)

• Does the dog die? A critical question before watching a movie. Check here to find out.

• As spring in my part of the world makes way for summer, this means Asparagus season is ending. I do love eating Asparagus. I don’t, however, love the after-effects.

• To end with a little Woody Guthrie. A friend and colleague told me he cited the good Mr. Guthrie in a scientific paper! A+ for that! – click here and read the first paragraph.

Just recently, I was thrilled to see another paper published by Rick Vetter (a well respected Arachnologist who has worked on debunking myths about spiders). This recent paper is titled “Spider Envenomation in North America” and was published in the journal Critical Care Nursing Clinics of North America. The paper was aimed at Nurses and to a lesser extent, Doctors, and gives frank, clear and concise information about spiders and spider bites.

Here’s the opening sentence: “Spiders occupy an interesting position in human society and in medicine. The overall health risk that they pose is minor compared with other routine events such as driving an automobile, vocational and recreational hazards, or living an unhealthy lifestyle“

Bingo. Spider bites are exceedingly rare!

Here is some more detail and context: there are only two groups of spiders in North America which can truly be considered ‘medically important’ - some species within the ‘widow’ group (e.g. black widows) and some within the ‘recluse’ group (e.g. brown recluse).  Here’s a lovely photo of a brown recluse spider, courtesy of Matt Bertone (thanks, Matt, for permission to post the photo here!).

A beautiful brown recluse spider. Photo © Matt Bertone, reproduced here with permission.

Much of Rick’s article documents the effects of bites from these two groups of spiders, and without a doubt, verified, real cases of spider bites from these two groups can certainly affect your health. Rick provides a clear list of symptoms and also discusses treatment options (including what used to be done, historically e.g., cocaine treatment for widow bites in the early 1900s).  He also points out that the actual number of recorded, verified bites by spiders are quite rare, even in regions where widows and recluse spiders live in proximity to humans (um, I have to state that because recluse spiders are continually blamed for bites in areas well beyond their range!).  Without doubt, poison control centres, Doctors, and other health care professionals hear panic about spider bites, and certainly see cases of lesions that are attributed (often by the affected person) to recluse spiders.

So, if it’s not spider bites, what is causing lesions?  Thankfully, Rick provides an answer, and I quote from the paper: “Possibly the most important advance in spider toxicology is the realization that many skin lesions that were attributed to spider bites were actually bacterial infections… Another study showed that of 182 southern Californian patients seeking treatment for spider bites, only 3.8% had actual spider bites while 85.7% had infections“.  So… more likely causal agents should be investigated.  Here’s a table from a 2003 publication by Vetter et al. that lists some of the potential causal agents that could be confused with brown recluse bites.

In sum, I remain steadfast in the claim that spider bites are exceedingly rare. Furthermore, there are very few species that are medically important, and of the thousands of spider species that exist in North America, few warrant any concern or fear. Spiders are our friends. Arachnids deserve positive attention.

I’ll finish on a positive note: as I was preparing this blog post, I had some nice discussion with Rick about his crusade to reduce fear and anxiety about spider bites. He’s worked hard to publish articles in journals which are read by health care professionals, and he believes the strategy is working.  Here’s a quote from Rick:

I have seen significant change in the medical literature where they are quoting my papers a lot and telling colleagues to be cautious with their diagnoses.  There are still those out there that continue to misdiagnose but I think that they are now in the minority.

This is great news, and I am heartened. That being said, I think we must continue to provide clear and accurate information to a broad audience and to the news media. I believe general paranoia and hysteria about spider bites is still high despite a potential shift in diagnosis from the medical community.

References

UC (Riverside) Spider Site.

Vetter, R. (2013). Spider Envenomation in North America Critical Care Nursing Clinics of North America, 25 (2), 205-223 DOI: 10.1016/j.ccell.2013.02.006

Vetter RS, Cushing PE, Crawford RL, & Royce LA (2003). Diagnoses of brown recluse spider bites (loxoscelism) greatly outnumber actual verifications of the spider in four western American states. Toxicon : official journal of the International Society on Toxinology, 42 (4), 413-8 PMID: 14505942

I do apologize as this week’s edition is a little short (and probably contains a few errors)- mainly because I spent the weekend on my bike, doing the Rideau Lakes Cycle Tour. I’m moving a little slow today after that 360 km in a saddle.  However, better some Expiscor than none at all, so here goes:

• Poor spiders. Always getting a bad name. even from the weather channel!  Unnecessary hysteria, wrong facts, and NO spiders are poisonous (although some are venomous) (thanks to my spider-pal Sam Evans for that link)

• Speaking of venomous spiders, Rick Vetter had another paper out, showing AGAIN that spiders bites are exceedingly rare, and, (I quote): methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus as a ubiquitous cause of skin injury that is often mistaken as attributable to recluse bites.

• And, I suppose if you absolutely HAVE to kill a spider… some advice here.

• Untangling the web – a neat post by Michelle Oyen about spider silk – worth a read (thanks Malcolm Campbell for finding that link)

• Hey look: a blog about Arachnophilia! I like that.

• The Andes are amazing for their diversity of many things, including Arachnids. Here’s a paper that describes a new scorpion species from that region. It has a lovely name: Tityus (Atreus) crassicauda

• INVASION OF THE CATERPILLARS!  Wow, British Columbia is experiencing quite the population growth of forest tent caterpillars (thanks Staffan Lindgren for those photos!)

• How about a flood of caterpillars. Look – they can swim! (thanks Dr. Dez)

• in another part of the world… INVASION OF THE RED CRABS.

• So many arthropods. Amazing. Ones that I would like to see again would be Trilobites. Too bad they are extinct. At least we have people like Glendon Mellow drawing stunning pictures of these amazing animals (thanks, Glendon, for permission to repost! – folks – see here for more amazing things from Glendon)

• More beautiful things: a Beetle Sculpture. Stunning. (thanks for that find, Weird Bug Lady)

• Looking North: an important paper that describes shortened flowering seasons in the Arctic, and the related decline of flower visitors. This work was out of the truly amazing Zackenberg monitoring station in Greenland. A+ for long-term monitoring.

• Speaking of the North – a report (PDF) that points to potentially catastrophic changes in the Mackenzie Delta.

• Do you know about poison ivy? Can you identify it? Take this quiz. (it’s worth being educated on this topic!)

• Some good news about managing Emerald Ash Borer: some tiny wasps are doing their ‘biocontrol’ thing….

• The CBC has a sense of humour – can’t have the people seeing Cicadas “doing it”

• Sit down: How interesting can a bench be? Common things are not so common. A lovely and fascinating post. (via SciLogs)

• Discovering Twitter from the Ivory Tower – a skeptic tries it, and likes it.

• Speaking of twitter, it brings me many, many smiles. Here’s the funny tweet of the week, from Jules Bristow (remind you of this?)

• Speaking of funny things… The Onion’s piece on “Man on cusp of having fun suddenly remembers his obligations” made me chuckle.

• This is not so funny. Lego models are getting angrier. I agree – the piles of Lego in my basement confirm that. Too bad. We need happy toys for our kids. (thanks Unpopular Science for the link)

• Canada is a Northern country, but with few people living in the North. For example, our Northernmost community (Grise Fiord) had a graduation ceremony last week. It’s graduation class size was one.

• Driving on the left? Drive on the right?  Why the difference? Here’s a video to explain…

• Biking on my mind. Here’s a neat graphic comparing the Tour de France from 1903 with the one from 2013. (thanks Stew for the link!)

• Spider versus Ants. Guess who wins….

When starting at McGill over 10 years ago, I kick-started my research program by spending weeks in the field, and seemed to manage a lot of time with each of my graduate students during the field season.  However, time in the field was measured as weeks, and not months.  Now, as I look at my schedule, I’m “maybe” going to get one full week in the field this summer, and a fews days here and there helping with other projects going on in the lab. My time doing field work, actively collecting data, is minimal.

Deep thoughts: field work in the Arctic. Are these days long gone…?

Wait a second. One reason I got into this business was because I like to figure out neat stuff about nature, while being in nature. As a child, I always enjoyed being ‘in the field‘ (this is also known as ‘playing outside‘) and wanted to continue this as an adult. What happened?

Academics in my discipline of study (let’s call it ‘field ecology‘) and at my career stage (i.e., some years into the job) spend relatively little time in the field and the bulk of their time is a desk job, click-click-clicking away on a keyboard. Staring at a monitor. I know there are exceptions (and BIG congratulations on those of you who do manage to get outside to collect data, regularly!), but when I look around to my colleagues, most of them spend more looking out a window instead of being out that window. The time gets chewed up by other (important) priorities: grant writing, editing manuscripts, writing manuscripts, answering emails, reading papers, attending meetings, chairing meetings, going to conferences, preparing talks for those conferences, writing lectures, delivering lectures and so on. These are all the current demands on our time, and they are the things that the job requires! (for other relevant discussions about this, have a peek at this post by Sarah Boon, and I’ve previously written about how I spend my time).

Bottom line: most of my work duties are indoor activities. I am fortunate in that some of my teaching occurs outside, but that is not the norm.  The other thing that happens is ‘life’ – time with family is important to me, and time away from family is difficult. One reason I’ve spent less weeks away is because it’s tough on all of us and I like being around when the kids are growing up. There’s also that thing called a vacation – Academics typically their vacation time during the summer. (related to this is a post over at Dynamic Ecology titled “how often do you travel”, by Meg Duffy)

That is how I have traded field biology for a desk job.

I’m not alone: here are some responses from folks on Twitter when I asked about their experiences, and whether they have traded field biology for a desk job:

This is not a lament; this is not a sob story. In fact, perhaps many of us are OK with this transition from field biologist to ‘research manager’:

There is an important message here for people moving up through the Academic system: current PhD and MSc students need to recognize that the idea of landing an Academic job that gets you ‘out in the field’ a lot is probably a pipe dream.

I’ll end with some optimism: Even though things have changed, I think I can still call myself a  ’field ecologist’ and here’s why:

1) “Field Trips” can be short. It’s possible to capture an hour outside over lunch and collect data on Agelenopsis spiders in a hedge near the picnic table, or stop off at a bird banding station in the AM before work, or swing by a forest to check a pitfall trap on the way home. I have come to realize that field work need not be ‘weeks away’.  In many cases, it’s worth starting up a project that takes you outside regularly, at a local field site. This makes the field work an easier part of the day and you don’t need to schedule weeks away (nor will you need to schedule it months in advance). Keeping it simple, and keeping in manageable is important for me, given the other constraints on time.

2) Trade-offs: I spend time in the field instead of attending a lot of conferences. I have always enjoyed going to scientific conferences, but given the difficulties in getting away for extended periods of time, I realized that I could do field work, or attend conferences, but doing both is not always possible. One of my academic mentors discussed this with me soon after I had started my job at McGill (ironically, at a conference!); he said that when the weather is good, time was better spent collecting flies rather than sitting in a hotel basement. Good point. (By the way, summer-conference are kind of annoying because of this conflict!).  Networking at conferences is very valuable, but that face-to-face networking may not be as essential later in a career. Thanks to social media, it’s also possible to attend conferences virtually.

3) Live vicariously through students: My thoughts about field work are somewhat nostalgic and dreamy, and I forget about the problems. I forget about the flat tires, encounters with bears, the biting flies, and the exhaustion. I’m reminded of these things when my graduate students come back from the field, and sometimes I am happy I wasn’t with them. I can, instead, spend a day or two with them in the field, troubleshoot, help but not have to suffer through it all. I’m a ‘gentleman field biologist’ now. Is that lame? Is that pathetic? Nope. I’ve put in my time and can now have my field trips field with all the fun parts and less of the annoying parts.

4) Mixing vacations with field biology: I’ve not been all that successful at this, but I do know colleagues who manage to mix extended vacation time with field work. I do this on a smaller scale, and it typically includes carrying vials along with every trip, whether it is to the family cottage, or just a walk in the local forest. I’m always after records of pseudoscorpions, and have managed some nice finds while on vacation.  My family does, however, gives me strange looks when I go chasing after spiders or butterflies during lunch break while on a road trip. I can handle the ridicule –> it’s for science!

Although I have largely traded field work for a desk job, there are still glimmers of exciting field work, and still opportunities to get outside and be reminded of the reasons why I originally got into this line of work. I am not depressed or sad about my desk job – I have the best job in the world, despite the the fact that I stare out the window and sometimes dream of field work. I also maintain that these things come in cycles – a few years ago I was away for a few weeks in the field, even if this year is less intensive. It’ll come around again, and perhaps I will write a post in the future that discusses how it’s possible to be a gritty, smelly, rough and tough field biologist again. For now, though, I must stop typing. It’s hard work and my fingers are a little sore.

Here’s what I stumbled across last week…

• Sorry folks, Tarantulas do not have silk spigots on their feet. According to this paper, that claim is bogus. And I tend to believe the lead author, Rainer Foelix. This does stir the imagination, though (think Spiderman). Thanks to Matthew Cobb for pointing me to that paper.

• Human-made spider silk – the future is here.

• Open Arachnids.  I mean Access Arachnids. No, I mean Arachnid Access. Wait, how about Open Access & Arachnids! Here’s a special issue of Invertebrate Systematics devoted to Arachnology.

• In that special issue, a new FAMILY of Laniatores is erected – these are a kind of Opiliones, otherwise known as Harvestmen.

• Tiny spiders – two new species of Mysmenidae described –  length of both < 1 mm.  Females not described for one of the species (No kidding! They are likely quite small, also)

• Garbage spiders are pretty darn smart! They strengthen their webs in just the right places. Amazing.

• And from the Biodiversity Heritage Library, Die Arachniden : Getreu nach der Natur abgebildet und beschrieben by C. L. Koch. Pretty amazing plates in that one (thanks Dr. Dez for the link!):

• I do love ETSY, and here’s another reason why – “It’s a bug thing“

• SCIENTISTS WAGE WAR ON PERVASIVE STINK BUG (quite the title…) & thanks to The Ent. Soc. of America for tweeting that story.

• Insects did it first – great blog by Marianne Alleyne. Last week, a nifty post about The Dawn of the Artificial Coprophages.

• We had our annual lab BBQ last week. One of my graduating MSc students bought me this amazing book. Stunning artwork about invertebrates. (thank you, Sarah!)

• Over at Why Evolution is True – a nice report on a voracious tiger beetle.

• An “interesting” video about Gypsy Moths. They can be ‘all ova da place‘. (Thanks Staffan for that link!)

• Way too cool.  Way too hip.  Way too Thrips.  Yes, the cool t-shirts are now ‘out there’ as Sean McCann demonstrates.

• Embrace nature. That is all.

• We should all love the Diptera. Matt Bertone helps us realize this:

A snipe fly, photographed by Matt Bertone, reproduced here with permission.

• Listen up – Biodiversity sampling with acoustics. Neat idea – not transferable to all taxa, but I certainly see its value in some contexts.

• Speaking of biodiversity – here’s a list of the top 10 biodiversity hotspots in Canada. I’ve only been to one of them. Most Canadians have not been to any of them. That’s probably a good thing -maybe their isolation will save them…

• Can twitter be beautiful?  Indeed – here’s the geography of tweets (thanks Bora Zivkovic for that link)

• Over at unpopular science, here’s a post about the top five fictional scientists. I’m ok with the 1st and 3rd on the list, but Futurama & The Simpsons? Really? There are better options out there: Dr. Frankenstein, Sherlock Holmes (…I call him a scientist of sorts), Sheldon Cooper, Bruce Banner?  And where are the women? What about Eleanor Arroway (from Contact), or Dana Scully (X-files)

• Is the peer-review process broken? Ever wonder what might happen if you submitted your published article again, to the same journal, under a pseudonym? Here’s a study that did exactly that. Truly alarming results. (spoiler: editors don’t notice and the articles don’t get very far along in the review process). As Terry McGlynn pointed out to me, perhaps the big message is that the original papers were entirely forgettable.

• Yay! Ainsley is back on Expiscor! Arrrrrrrrn’t you happy about that?

@AmericanBeetle’s whiteboard of science pirate puns. (reproduced here with permission)

• Speaking of pirates, here’s a terrific looking read about sea monsters, on old maps.

• An interesting week for Mount Everest.The 29th of May was the 60th anniversary of the first ascent of Everest.  To celebrate that, this dude base-jumped from the mountain (really? Am I supposed to be impressed by that?). Why am I bitter? Perhaps because the world’s highest mountain is being seriously spoiled by humans. Sigh.

• It’s convocation time at McGill! Today is when grads from my campus walk across the stage for their degrees. Well done to all (I’ll be cheering you on)!  Here are some great words of advice for college grads. (so much more than “follow your dreams…“)

• Rock out, Saruman!

• Life lesson: don’t bring german sausages to Iceland (thanks Jamin, for the odd Iceland links last week)

• Speaking of Iceland, gotta love Of Monsters and Men. Shut the office door, crank up the volume, and click the video below.

A BIG congratulations to Sarah Loboda and Katie Sim  - they are both tremendously talented students, excellent Arachnologists, and wonderful people to know.  Last night we had our annual Lab BBQ – and at that event, I was pleased to give Sarah and Katie a small token of appreciation.  Here’s a photo showing them both with their wolf spider photographs (photos by the incredible Thomas Shahan):

Katie Sim (left) and Sarah Loboda (right) – successful (& happy) MSc students!

Sarah Loboda’s thesis is titled Multi-scale patterns of ground-dwelling spider (Araneae) diversity in northern Canada. Her research focused on broad diversity patterns of ground-dwelling spiders collected from our 12 study sites, spread across Canada’s north. Our project spanned 30 degrees of latitude and 80 degrees of longitude –> yes that is a lot of land area! Sarah identified over 300 spider species from 14 families, and over 23,000 individuals.  Publications are forthcoming so I won’t give details here, except to say that we can learn a lot about diversity patterns over broad spatial scales using a study taxon such as spiders.

Here’s where the Northern Biodiversity Program took our field teams.

Katie’s work (co-supervised by Prof. Terry Wheeler) had a different slant, but was still on Arctic spiders. Her thesis is titled:  Genetic analysis of Pardosa wolf spiders (Araneae: Lycosidae) across the northern Nearctic. The first part of Katie’s thesis was about understanding the phylogeographic history of the Arctic spider Pardosa glacialis, with particular attention to post-glacial dispersal patterns, as inferred by population genetics. The second part of her thesis was focused on whether or not there is enough evidence to suggest two northern Pardosa species should remain as separate species, or be merged into one – based on both molecular and morphological characters.  Let’s just say that Katie had to be a ‘field genius‘, ‘lab genius‘ and ‘spider genitalia genius‘.  Here’s an example of what she looked at, a lot:

The epigynum of a wolf spider species, (part of) the topic of Katie’s research.

In sum, I am thrilled to see Sarah and Katie finish up their work, although their success also comes with a touch of sadness, as I will miss their daily presence in the laboratory.  Stay tuned… we shall soon report all the details from their research.

• The Wandering Leg Sausage.  That’s a common name for a species of African millipede. It’s latin name is also nice (Crurifarcimen vagans), but doesn’t quite stir up the imagination in the same way (Thanks Derek Hennen for that link)

• Speaking of Latin names – Did you know that Carl Linnaeus’s birthday was on 23 May? Mark that in your calendar for next year!

• On the day BEFORE Linnaeus’s birthday, this paper came out: New cave-dwelling whipscorpion species discovered and described.  That alone is terrific – but in that paper is also some discussion of “remarkable dimorphism in male pedipalp length” – an equally interesting part of the story. Too bad many new sources called the shorttailed whipscorpions “scorpions” in the title. Nope – VERY different Orders, folks!

• More about names – how about studying species without names? Here’s a post from the Lindo soil ecology lab at Western University (yes, that is the new name for a University that is not actually in the ‘west’ of Canada).

• Awesome invertebrates of the Dominican Republic. That is the name of the video, and that title is accurate – some great coverage of odd Arachnids. (thanks to AJ for the link)

• Dreamy butterflies thanks to Dragonfly Woman.

• Ready for your weekly dose of spider beauty?  Here’s a lovely shot of a Philodromidae on a stick, from Sean McCann (thanks, Sean, for allowing me to use the photo here!)

• Two wings good:  the latest Fly Times is out! (Thanks Chris Borkent for tweeting that link)

• Entomology museums are so important, but need your help. Here’s my post on the topic, from the perspective of Arachnids. Here’s another related to how citizen science can help to digitize insect collections in California. It’s great to see there’s a potential solution to the daunting data-basing task.

• Fun with follicles: Time to meet your mites.

• The tiny insect with massive sperm. Zorapterans in the news! (As May Berenbaum points out, these critters don’t typically get much press)

• Return of the Cicadas – this is really a stunning and beautiful video.

Return of the Cicadas from motionkicker on Vimeo.

• Vintage photos with an arthropod theme… awesome.

• What’s up with all the caterpillars? If you live in some parts of Canada, you may be up to your neck in them… here’s a terrific post by Dezene Huber on the topic. (and he’s welcoming your questions!)

• More on Art, Design & Entomology from Bug Girl. (yes, those of you who are regular followers of Expiscor can see a pattern – Bug Girl is here a lot. And for good reason!)

• Worried about the Emerald Ash Borer? A natural insecticide is available (but really to target highly valued trees) – thanks Chris MacQuarrie for the link.

• Blue Frogs.  No, they are not sad. They are blue. A relative of mine asked about a blue treefrog she found in her backyard in Ontario. This got me into a fascinating discussion with my twitter pals (thanks in particular to Heidi, Germán, Rafael, and Kate!). Conclusion? Probably a rare “mutant” frog who may be missing the yellow pigment in its skin, resulting in blue colouration.  Here’s a photo in case you aren’t convinced:

This is a Gray Treefrog that is blue. Photo © R. Dickson

• Should you worry about using WIFI? This science project may worry you… certainly affected cress (thanks Tom Allen for tweeting that link)

• The most popular drink in Medieval Europe? I assumed wine or beer… no so!

• Living in the cold: some fascinating results out about high Arctic bacterium – and lab who published this work is just one floor up from me. Congrats to the McGill team!

• Microbes of the body - a fascinating article about the bacteria within… (yes, I realize this should have been in an earlier Expiscor – but I missed it in mid-May)

• The Canadian War on Science.  Sigh. Doesn’t make me so proud to be Canadian.

• Tick Tock: Outreach activities are terrific, but do take time.  Here’s a post about finding that 25th hour in the day. (that post is part of the #reachingoutsci hashtag – worth a follow).

• Chirp Chirp: Is your state bird a stupid bird? (thanks Carly for the link)

• Fun with feathers – I visited the McGill Bird Observatory earlier this week. What a terrific resource – long-term monitoring of our winged friends is rather important and quite a suite of volunteers is helping to make this happen. A big thanks to Barbara Frei for letting me see the operations and help with a bit of data collection.

• Navel gazing: The secrets of belly button lint (an older story, but a good one!)

• Whiz, Bang, Beakers & Blankets! My wife’s business (Organic Quilt Company) has some new science / geeky fabrics in stock.  Here’s a peek:

Organic Quilt Company – new spring collection with a bit of a science theme. You can follow that fine business on twitter, too.

The spider collection has historically been one of the finest, world-wide. It contains numerous type specimens, and houses thousands upon thousands of vials, all within stand-up cabinets. These vials contain rich biological information – they contain a spider with a species name, where it was found, who collected it, and when. These kinds of museum data are absolutely vital as we try to understand our biodiversity, and how it might be changing in the face of environmental stresses. Museum data form the basis of taxonomic revisions, and museum specimens (identified to species, by experts) are an important way for someone to learn taxonomy (that is how I did it!).

Our goal in the spider collection was to data-base some specimens – this means taking what is written on (old) labels, and entering data into a data-base (one that will eventually go on-line). On this trip, we were looking for some records of purse-web spiders in North America, and for northern black widow spider records. We also worked to database the jumping spiders (Salticidae), with a particular focus on those species occurring in Canada.

The task of data-basing.

You might wonder why we would take time away from our own (busy) laboratory in Montreal to drive up to Ottawa to enter data; surely there are better uses of that precious resource of time (and money)?  Nope: A visit to the CNCI is always worth it.  Here’s why:

1. Label data are useful data! I have quite a few projects ongoing this summer, including a better understanding of the distribution of jumping spiders in Quebec. There’s no better way to find certain species than going to where they have been found before.  How do you know where they have been found before? Although much can be gleaned from publications, there are hundreds of specimens that have been collected and stored at the CNCI, but whose data has never been used in a publication. Looking at vials and reading labels is a good place to start, and while doing this, it only makes sense to enter the information into a data-base. It’s not exciting work, but having data digitally accessible allows my own research interests to move forward more effectively.

Treasures in the cabinet.

2. I’m an Arachnologist in Canada, and as such, I feel a responsibility to use the collection in Ottawa. The spider room at the CNCI is where (historically) Canada become a global leader in spider taxonomy. Charlie Dondale and others (notably James Redner) wrote some of the most important papers and books about spiders in North America, and their (free!) books remain a critical resource for Arachnologists throughout North America.  The hallowed grounds of the spider room are where much of this work occurred. It’s a special place, and one that is worth visiting.

3. If you don’t use it, you’ll lose it. The future is not bright for this spider collection. Surprisingly, a replacement for Charlie has not be hired. We need an Arachnologist in Ottawa (I’ve written about this before). I worry deeply for this collection, and even a few visits per year are better than none at all – it shows there is still broader interest in the spider collection, and that it remains an important resource for people from other regions of Canada. Showing continual use and interest in the collection is a great way to show its value.

4. If it’s lost, let’s hope the data are not. Time for thinking about ‘worst case scenarios‘:  every time I am at the CNCI I see evidence of further degradation of the spider collection. Spiders are stored in ethanol, long-term, and without  curation the ethanol degrades, discolours, the specimens get brittle or break apart, the labels fade or become unreadable, or perhaps a vial or two break.  The spider collection has not receive high consistent curation for a very long time. At the very least, we better have the data from those specimens, and that requires data-basing.

Trouble in the collection: A vial with a cracked glass lip.

In sum, the spider room at the CNCI is a national treasure and it was really great to be there. We didn’t get much done (only about a hundred specimens databased – and, truthfully, I did very little of the hard work – my students did all the heavy lifting).  But it was a start, and means that we’ll need to come back. I sincerely look forward to the next visit!

What is Expiscor? …it’s a weekly digest of discoveries from the world of entomology, biology, and so much more.

• It seems that every week there’s a story about ‘dangerous spiders‘ – this week, Bug Girl wrote a post to help FIX THE INTERNET – in this case, to discuss a bogus spider poster.

• Cannibalism is not so taboo with spiders. We always talk about female spiders eating male spiders… but this story turns the tables – males eating females (thanks Malcolm Campbell for that link)

• Jumping Spiders – the darlings of the Arachnid world. I found an amazing site this week – one that shows some lovely videos of dozens of species, including some courtship displays.

• On the topic of jumping spiders – they can make you look twice – WOW, WOW and WOW again. (thanks Alex Wild, for that photo, and permission to use it)

• Hungry for bugs?  Amazing infographic about entomophagy.

• How about hungry for Cicadas? It is pretty hard to talk about entomology these days without mentioning Cicadas! (thanks to Kimberly Moynahan for that link)

• 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19 –>  What about Cicadas and their love affair with these kinds of numbers…

• Know your ticks. A nice post by Eric Eaton that explains ticks concisely and accurately.

• Flower power! How planting flowers can bring so much more than beauty and nice odours. (spoiler – they can promote “good” insects, spiders in orchards)

• Biodiversity under foot – great video about threats to soil biodiversity (thanks to my former MSc student, and recent PhD graduate, Zach for posting that link.

• Biodiversity under snow…. yes, there is a lot of it under the white stuff. And the decline of snow cover could be trouble for plants and animals (including lovely spiders)

• Gutsy Barcoding – a great use of barcoding in ecology. (thanks Morgan Jackson for that link!)

• Lord of the Butterflies. This week’s Real Scientists is featuring entomologist Andy Warren – worth a follow!

• Bug music. Heck yeah! Bug music! Gotta love RadioLab.

• Fireflies: I always find the larvae of the Lampyridae beetles to be odd-looking, and I sometimes have trouble reconciling their habitus with adults.  This is a lot easer thanks to Derek Hennen for this lovely photo of an adult – check out that abdomen! (and thanks, Derek, for allowing me to use this photo)

• Scale it. This is VERY worth checking out. I personally like 10 to the power of -2.5

• Looking back, looking forward - some reflections about teaching from Graham Scott - here, Graham points out that it’s important to remember that students are not a younger version of yourself!

• A worthy ordeal: Another great post from one of my heroes, Simon Leather – a terrific tradition in the British University system.

• World’s 10 weirdest medical museums. Hmmm – a bit creepy, but in a good way (thanks to Laurie Devine for the link)

• Explosive poop foam is killing hogs, destroying barns and stumping scientists. Yes, that is the title. Seriously. (thanks Alan Townsend for the link)
  

• Lego geek-fest. Star Wars, LOTR, Arrested Development & so much more.

• To finish, as usual, with some music. I’ve been a fan of Steve Earle for quite a long time, and his latest album (the Low Highway) does not disappoint. Here’s a video from one of the songs from that album. Worth a listen (and a good lesson in there, too)

But loss can be small and I have surely felt it at times. Loss can be a kind of disappointment or inconvenience. Loss can be in sports, a broken leg or dislocated shoulder; it can be an inability to get that paper published, or a graduate student deciding to leave the laboratory, or some form of rejection. Small losses can sting for a little while. They are not insignificant when viewed at small scales, but they are small.

Loss can be significant. Life throws curve balls, gives some pretty sharp kicks and pays no attention to ‘good timing’. There are big losses that take up larger chunks of emotion, and affect us physically and mentally.  Kids get sick (…how many of us have stayed awake all night, laying next to our child who may have laboured breathing and suffering high fever?).  I’ve lost grandparents, I’ve had friends who have passed away, and I’ve had pets who have died. I’ve also been near to people who have suffered tremendous loss, especially recently. If it stings and hurts for me, it must be unbearable for them. I think I’m dreadfully scared of large-scale loss and I don’t know how people get through it.

From a broader perspective, this has me reflecting on what is constant about our lives. Are there any constants? Perhaps only that life is both fragile and unpredictable – that’s a difficult combination.  When things are good, at their most basic level (health, food, roof), things are really, really good. That is an important thing to remember. When things go south, life makes little sense, it seems unfair and we despair.  This is a confirmation of the fragile and the unpredictable.

When facing significant loss, why should we not despair and call it unfair?

Here’s why: the people I have seen go through significant loss, and who have been in dark places, do emerge from those places. The continue, they fight, they move on. They don’t forget, they don’t get over grief, they don’t get over the loss, but they do carry on. These are my heroes.  Of course, this is my view, from the outside, and I certainly don’t pretend to understand. But I do take inspiration from people who move on and eventually laugh and smile again, after what must be the unbearable context of tremendous loss.

I’ve talked and written before about the importance of ‘slowing down‘. I believe this more strongly now than ever before. Be mindful, be caring. Curve balls are coming. None of us will be be spared those sharp kicks.

To end, a few lyrics from Tom Petty – I heard these while driving in to work, after just learning of a friend who suffered tremendous loss.

Well I know what’s right, I got just one life

In a world that keeps on pushin’ me around

But I’ll stand my ground and I won’t back down