Month: August 2012

Determining authorship for a peer-reviewed scientific publication

/ Chris Buddle / 4 Comments

Authorship on written work should never be taken lightly. Authorship implies ownership and responsibility for the ideas and content portrayed as the written word. In science, our currency is the written word, in the form of peer-reviewed articles submitted and published in scientific journals, and multi-authored works are the norm (sometimes to ridiculous degrees!). Being an author on a paper is critically important for success in academia: the number of publications on your CV can get you job interviews, scholarships, and often leads to increased research funding. Scientists are often judged by publication metrics, and although we may not like this system, it remains prevalent. With this context I pose the following question: What is the process by which an individual is granted the privilege of being an author on a peer-reviewed journal article? This blog post will provide an objective method to determine authorship for a publication, and by sharing it, I hope it helps bring some clarity to the issue.

(Note: as a biologist, I am drawing from my experiences publishing in the fields of ecology and entomology, and in my role as the Editor-in-Chief for a scientific journal, The Canadian Entomologist - the ideas presented below may not be transferable to other fields of study).

A paper that resulted from a graduate class; should all these individuals be authors on this paper? (yes, of course!)

The method outlined below starts by thinking about five main stages in the publication process, and there are individuals associated with each stage:

1. Research concept, framework, and question: The research process leading to a publication has a conceptual backbone - it is the overarching research framework. The background ideas and concepts that initiate the research that leads to a publication come from somewhere (…and someone). Although the end product of research may be the publication, a good research question is at the start, and drives the entire process. Without a solid framework for research, and a clear question, the research will simply never be in a form suitable for publication. The person (or people) who developed the big-picture ideas, research framework, and research question are to be considered as authors on the final publication. In the University framework, this is often an academic who has developed a laboratory and research program around a thematic area of study.

2. Funding. Someone has to pay for research - whether it be a large, collaborative research grant that supports many graduate students, or whether it be a small grant from a local conservation agency. An individual scientist applied for money, and was able to support the research that leads to the publication. These monies could directly support the research (e.g., provide travel funds, purchase of equipment), the individual doing the research (e.g., pays the graduate student stipend, or technician), or the monies could offset the costs associated with the publication process itself (e.g., many journals charge authors to submit their work, also known as page charges). The individual(s) who pay for the research need to be considered as authors on the final publication resulting from the research. More often than not, this individual is the main “supervisor” of a research laboratory, but could also be important collaborators on grant applications, often from other Universities or Institutions.

3. Research design and data collection: Once the overall research question is in place, and funding secured, the actual research must be designed and executed. These are placed together under one heading because it is difficult to separate the two, nor should they be separated. You cannot design a project without attention to how data are collected, nor can you collect data without a clear design. In a typical University environment, Master’s and PhD students are intimately associated with this part of the research equation, and spend a very significant portion of their time in design and data collection mode. Without a doubt, the individual(s) who “design and do” the research must be considered as authors.

4. Data analyses, and manuscript preparation: The next step in the process is taking the data, crunching the numbers, preparing figures and tables, and writing a first draft of the manuscript. This is a very important step in the process, as this is the stage where the research gets transformed into a cohesive form. In a typical University laboratory, this is often done by Master’s students, PhD students, or post-docs, and the product of this stage is often (part of) a graduate student’s thesis. However, it is also quite likely that a research associate, technician, or Honour’s student be involved at this stage, or that this stage is done by multiple individuals. For example, data management and analyses may be done by a research technician whereas the head researcher does the bulk of the synthetic writing. Regardless, one or many individuals may be involved in this stage of the publication process, and all of these people must be considered as authors on the final product.

5. Editing, manuscript submission, and the post-submission process: The aforementioned stage is certainly not the final stage. A great deal of time and effort goes into the editing process, and quite often the editing and re-writing of manuscripts is done by different individuals than those who wrote the first draft. Important collaborators and colleagues may be asked to read and edit the first draft and/or other students within a laboratory may work to fine-tune a manuscript. Most likely, the supervisor of a graduate students invests a lot of time and energy at this stage, and works to get the manuscript in a form that is ready to be submitted to a scientific journal. The submission process itself can also be difficult and daunting - papers must be formatted to fit the style requirements for specific journals, and the on-line submission process can take a long time. After the manuscript has been submitted and reviewed by peers, it will most likely return to authors with requests for revisions. These revisions can be lengthy, difficult, and require significant input (perhaps from many individuals). For all these reasons, this fifth stage of the publication process cannot be undervalued, and the individual(s) associated with editing, submitting and dealing with revisions must be considered as authors.

Those five categories help define the main stages that lead to a scientific publication, and there are individuals associated with each stage. Here’s the formula to consider adopting when considering which individuals should be authors on the final product: if an individual contributed significantly to three or more of the above stages, they should be an author on the final paper. Here’s an example: in a ‘typical’ research laboratory, the supervisor likely has a big-picture research question that s/he is working on (Stage 1) and has secured funding to complete that project (Stage 2). A Master’s student, working with this supervisor, will work on the design and collect the data (Stage 3), and as they prepare their thesis, will do the bulk of the data analysis and write the first draft of the paper (Stage 4). In most cases, the editing and manuscript submission process is shared by the supervisor and the student, and both individuals are likely involved with the revisions of the manuscript after it has been peer-reviewed (Stage 5). In this case, both individuals clearly contributed to at least three of five categories, and the paper should be authored by both individuals.

A classic example of a paper with a graduate student and supervisor as co-authors.

What about the research assistant that helped collect data? - since they only contributed to Stage 3, they are not considered as an author. The same is true of a collaborator at a different University who may have helped secure the funding (Stage 2), but did not help with the process in any other way - they do not qualify as authors on this work. It is quite possible that a post-doc in a laboratory contributes to multiple stages, even on a single Master’s project. For example, the post-doc may have helped secure the funding, assisted significantly with data analysis, and helped to edit the final paper - this entitles them to authorship.

This entire method may be considered too rigid, and cannot really be implemented given the complexities of the research process, and given personalities and politics associated with the research process. Furthermore, many researchers may include their friends on publications, in hopes that the favour will be returned so both individuals increase their publication numbers. I do not think this is ethical, and overall, if an individual did not contribute to the research process in a significant way, they should not be authors. The method outlined above provides one way to help determine how this ‘significant way’ can be determined objectively. The process is certainly not without fault, nor will it work in all circumstances, but perhaps it will help to define roles and help to consider seriously who should be considered as authors on papers.

I can also admit that I have not always contributed to “3 of 5 stages” on all the paper for which I am an author, so you can call me a hypocrite. That’s OK, (I’ve been called worse), and I reiterate that the process outlined above is context-dependent, and simply provides a framework, or guide, for thinking about this important issue in science.

I am certainly not alone in this discussion, nor with this concept - Paul Friedman wrote about this (in A New Standard for Authorship) and the method in analogous to the one outlined above (although with more categories). Some journals also specify their expectations for authorship. As an example, in its instructions to authors, PNAS states that ‘Authorship should be limited to those who have contributed substantially to the work’, and request that contributions be spelled out clearly. This is a good idea, and forces people to think about the issue.

I’ll finish with two more important points: First, determining authorship, and thinking about authorship, must be a transparent and clear process. Graduate students must not be surprised when their supervisor states that some other researcher will be an author on their work - this should have been clear from the start. A discussion about authorship must occur early in the research process. Full stop.

Second, another key question is the order of authors. For example, when is the student’s name first on a publication, and the supervisor second? What’s the convention for your field of study? Who should be second author when there are four or five co-authors? This is a complicated question and, you guessed it, one that will be addressed in a future blog post!

Please share your thoughts… how does your laboratory deal with the question of authorship on scientific papers?

Entomologists at Work: what do they look like?

/ Chris Buddle / 1 Comment

It’s the end of the summer, and I have been looking through some photographs from this past field season. Included in the photographs are a lot of images of “entomologists at work” and this prompted me to start a Tumblr blog called “The Entomologist“. The inspiration for this comes directly from “What a scientist looks like” - a truly wonderful project devoted to rethinking stereotypes about scientists.

Is this a typical Entomologist, Butterfly net in hand? (Photograph by C. Ernst)

What are the stereotypes of Entomologists “at work” ? I would guess that most people probably think Entomologists are either waving around butterfly nets in a rainforest clearing, or perhaps looking at fly larvae under a snazzy microscope to determine time of death (i.e., Forensic entomology as depicted on CSI).

What do entomologists really do? What does it look like when they are at work? This project is devoted to answering these questions, through submissions to the site. Please contribute by going here, and clicking on the Submit tab. Please provide a photograph of yourself as an Entomologist at work, be it in the laboratory, in a research collection, doing field work, rearing larvae, weighing specimens, checking traps, inspecting a home for pests, counting aphids on plants, etc. Or, take a picture of a colleague or friend of yours who spends time with insects and catch them in action.

I encourage ALL entomologists to submit a photo - whether you are an amateur, professional, young or old.

Show me your passion for the discipline, and I hope the site will fill with depictions of the breadth and depth of entomology and its practitioners. Perhaps this can also inspire more people to become Entomologists.

Succeed at University: ten tips for new undergraduate students

/ Chris Buddle / 12 Comments

The start of term is an exciting time for those of us involved in Academia - new students are arriving on campus, full of enthusiasm, hope, and questions. As a Program Director for McGill’s Environmental Biology Major, I am asked a lot of these questions, and I am sometimes asked for advice. I thought it worthwhile providing ten simple tips for incoming students, and perhaps some of these will help make the transition to University a smooth one.

Meet your advisor!

1. Meet your academic advisor: Most academic programs have an ‘academic advisor’ associated with them (e.g., see here for McGill’s website about advising). These individuals are there to help students get through their program, and advisors typically help students with course selection, and help plan a student’s academic program. When arriving on campus, you should book a meeting with your advisor, and more importantly, listen to their advice! Advisors know the ins and outs of your program, and paying attention to them will help you in the long run. You don’t want to end up messing up your academic program because you decided to avoid taking required courses early on in your program!

2. Have an agenda, and use it: This seems like pretty obvious advice, but you would be surprised how many students (and Professors!) don’t have a good system for managing time. University is a lot about managing your time: getting to classes, dealing with e-mails, assignments, planning for exams, facebook, and squeezing in a social life, or a part-time job. It’s a struggle to manage all these tasks, and to help with this, develop a clear and straightforward system of ‘calendar + tasks‘. Under calendar, include your class schedule, important dates and meetings, and most importantly, LOOK at the calendar regularly! I personally prefer using an on-line calendar that syncs with my phone - but some people prefer the old-fashion (yet dependable) hard-copy calendar. For tasks, include short-term tasks (with deadlines - cross-referenced with your calendar) and long-term tasks, so that you are reminded of deadlines that might be weeks away, yet will sneak up on you. I use a small notebook for my task list, and it is always with me - for me, the act of physically writing down a task list helps me remember what I need to work on. A good system for your agenda and tasks will make your life a lot easier. Furthermore, effective use of an agenda and task list will help you refine your time management skills, and these skills are truly essential to success at University (and for your career, beyond…).

3. Show up on time and don’t miss deadlines: Again, this seems pretty obvious, but it’s also pretty easy to mess up. Treat University like a professional job - you need to be mature, you must be on time, and you never miss deadlines. In fact, aim to have everything done early (with good time management skills, this is very possible!). Being late to lectures, or having to ask for extensions on papers or projects, does you no favours. Professors, generally speaking, are not impressed by these behaviours. At some point, you may need to ask your Professors for a letter of reference, and it is much better to be remembered as the students who hands in papers early.

University awaits: the entrance to one of the buildings at McGill Macdonald campus

4. Go to lectures: Lectures are there for a reason: they provide you with value-added content. It’s true that some of the content may be available on-line, or with a text-book, but in most cases, lectures will help to draw connections between different content, and/or provide a valuable context to the material that might be in the textbook or on-line. Most Professors take a lot of pride in lecturing, and work hard to make the lectures engaging, interesting, and thought-provoking. You will soak up an amazing amount of material by just being in lectures, and paying attention.

5. Ask questions: In most of my classes, I tell students that there are no stupid questions (except for “Will this be on the exam?”). This is very, very true. If you are confused about a concept, or failed to get the point of a slide, or discussion, you must ask for clarification. Although it can be intimidating to ask a question in a large lecture hall, it’s important to try. If you are confused, it’s highly likely that other student’s are also confused. You are helping yourself, and your peers, when you put your hand up.

6. Get to know your instructors: Whenever possible, get to know the instructors of your courses, be they Professors, Lecturers, or Teaching Assistants. Most instructors have office hours, and these hours are there for good reason - they provide time to meet your instructor, ask questions, and have a personal connection with them. Don’t be intimidated by the Professors: we are people, too, and most of us recognize that life as an incoming undergraduate student can be stressful and difficult. We can provide you help with course content, but also help direct you to other resources. Getting to know your instructors also helps when you might be seeking a summer job in the future, or when you need a letter of recommendation.

7. Get help when you are struggling: At some point in your University career you will likely need help, whether it is with difficulties with a personal relationship, failing a course, or getting sick. The University system is a compassionate and collegial environment and it’s a place with a lot of wonderful resources to help you when you are struggling. Don’t hesitate to seek help when you need it - visit health services when you are sick, or talk to your academic advisor if you are having difficulties with your program. Most importantly: know what services are available ahead of time (e.g., see this example for McGill), so when you need assistance, you know how to get it.

8. Avoid ‘grade panic’: I am living proof that it is possible to do poorly at undergraduate courses yet still have a successful career! When I was an undergraduate student at the University of Guelph, I just about failed my first year physics course and I was terrified that this would make it impossible to succeed in any kind of career. Of course this was not the case - a University education is much more than a single course, or a single quiz or examination - an academic program has many components and even if some of the components slow down occasionally, this does not mean the program is broken. Aim for excellence in your academics, but also remember that EVERYONE has bad days, preforms poorly on an exam, or just can’t seem to figure out a particular University subject. This is normal, and you must keep everything in perspective! Your University career is not defined by a single moment of failure - keep the bigger picture in perspective, and don’t sweat the small failures. In a University environment, success at everything is nearly impossible to achieve. Keep a level head, keep calm, aim for excellence, but don’t panic when things go wrong.

Eat your veggies!

9. Stay healthy: Your mother was right - eat your vegetable and get some sleep. Invariably, influenza and/or a bout of gastro will whip through residence halls sometime around when mid-term exams are starting. Your best line of defense is a healthy immune system, and part of that includes nutrition and sleep. I think it’s more important to be less prepared but well rested than over-prepared and exhausted - and if you attended lectures (see point 4, above), your rested mind will be in a good position to access the course content.

10. Have fun! Life as an undergraduate student is incredibly enriching on intellectual, emotional, and social levels. Slow down every now and then, breath deeply, and remember what an amazing environment you are in. University provides a wealth of opportunities (student groups, sports, lectures, laboratories, and more), and these are all extremely rewarding in many ways. Don’t forget to take it all in - in the future, you will remember a lot of details from your University days and you want these memories to be more than sweating over deadlines.

What did I miss…? Pass along your best tips!

Notes from the field: Yukon wildlife (Part 3)

/ Chris Buddle / 2 Comments

Here is Part 3 from the “notes from the field” series - an account of a recent field research trip to the Yukon. Click here for Part 1 and here for Part 2.

17 July, 10 AM, Dawson City, Yukon

I am back in the world of electricity, Internet, hotels, and tourists. The layers of mosquito repellent have finally been washed off after a much-needed shower in the Hotel last night.

Arctic Pardosa wolf spiders… captured.

The big news is that the day after I last wrote, we managed to find and collect Pardosa glacialis! We woke early on July 15 and went up to the high elevation tundra habitats located exactly on the border of the Yukon and NWT (we are not even sure what Territory to write on our collection labels! - the site was, literally, on the border!). All five of us helped Katie look for wolf spiders, and after a couple of hours of searching and collected, we found dozens of specimens - this was thrilling, as these specimens are very important for Katie’s research and we were getting anxious about not finding any. We also got a little bit lucky - within an hour of that sampling, some rather nasty weather blew in and we were forced back to camp for the afternoon. In the rain, tundra wolf spiders tend to hunker down deep into the moss and lichens, not to be seen.

I have mixed feelings about being able to catch up on e-mails, and I certainly miss my family. However, I am also missing the fields of cottongrass on the Arctic tundra, eating cloudberries in high mountain passes, and seeking new localities for the Arctic pseudoscorpion. The Dempster Highway is a biologist’s dream - full of wildlife, stunning vistas, amazing habitats, a unique biogeographical history, and a region that hosts a rather stunning and diverse arthropod fauna.

I will be back up here again.

The Yukon landscape.

Notes from the field: Yukon wildlife (Part 2)

/ Chris Buddle / 2 Comments

Here is Part 2 from the “notes from the field” series - an account of a recent field research trip to the Yukon. Click here for Part 1.

14 July, 11 PM, Rock River Campground, km 445 (Dempster Highway), Yukon

“Bag of spiders” - a nice haul of wolf spiders!

We have had a busy few days - we finally got some drier weather in Tombstone and Laura and Barb were able to do some collecting, and Crystal set some more traps. We left Tombstone a couple of days ago to drive north, collecting en route. We have seen some of the larger wildlife, including arctic fox, moose, and grizzly bears. However, our sights were really set on the smaller wildlife: Barb was particularly impressed with the diversity of parasitic wasps at a place called “Windy Pass” - this area is known for hosting a lot of rare, Beringian species, and entomologists have collected at this locality for decades. We crossed the Arctic Circle yesterday, and the Rock River campground is nestled in a river valley just north of the Arctic Circle. We are now officially in the Richardson Mountain range - the tundra habitats about 10 km north of this campground is one of the most beautiful places on the planet. I feel very lucky and privileged to be here.

Although we had some more rain and cold weather yesterday, today was a perfect summer day at this latitude (i.e., it got just above 20C) - it was also a very windy day, which was bliss since higher winds mean that the incessant hordes of mosquitoes are kept at bay. Fieldwork in the sub-arctic is quite challenging, in part because of the mosquitoes.

Self-portrait geared up for the biting flies.

We collected well into the NWT, getting all the way to the Peel River (located about 540 km up the Dempster). Crystal found the most northern locality for Wyochernes asiaticus in the NWT and for that reason I will buy her a beer whenever we get back to civilization! Unfortunately we have yet to find Katie’s wolf spider species - we have checked a few locations but have come up empty - there are certainly many other species of wolf spiders on the Tundra, but the ones we have collected have not been Pardosa glacialis. Our team is a little anxious about this, as we only have a few more days at the Richardson Mountains before heading south.

We are now back in camp and it should be time to crawl into the tents. At this latitude it is pretty difficult to think about going to sleep - it is light 24 hours a day, so it is hard to trick the body into thinking it is time for sleep. It’s even harder to get to sleep knowing that Pardosa glacialis is out there…somewhere.

Stay tuned for Part 3, coming Friday…

Notes from the field: Yukon wildlife (Part 1)

/ Chris Buddle / 4 Comments

This is the first of a three-part series that was originally published (as one article) in the McGill Reporter, as part of their “notes from the field” section - it is an account of my research trip to the Yukon, back in July. It is reproduced here, with permission. For a different (yet complementary!) account of this field trip, see The Bug Geek’s blog posts, Part 1 and Part 2.

MSc student Katie Sim searching for wolf spiders in the Yukon, among fields of cottongrass

8 July 2012, 10 PM, The Westmark Hotel, Whitehorse Yukon

Our entomology research team has just arrived in Whitehorse in anticipation of our upcoming fieldwork in the Yukon. I just returned to my room after enjoying a beer at the hotel bar where we completed our GIANT shopping list this evening. Tomorrow morning we are picking up our RV, and will be driving about 500 km NW of Whitehorse (on paved roads) before turning onto the Dempster Highway - this famous Yukon road is a dusty, gravel road that heads straight up towards the Northwest Territory, crossing the Arctic Circle, and taking you from boreal spruce forests in the south to sub-arctic tundra in the North. The Dempster crosses the Yukon-Northwest Territory border at about kilometer 465, and then continues on to Inuvik. It’s a big trip with few opportunities for groceries along the way. We are all part of the Northern Biodiversity Program - a multi-University collaborative project about the diversity of insects and spiders in Canada’s North. After months of planning, applying for research permits, and fine-tuning our methods, it is great to finally be here. That being said, I worry that the excitement and anticipation will keep us too jittery to get a good night’s sleep tonight - too bad since after tonight, we’ll be sleeping in tents rather than hotel rooms!

10 July 2012, 3 PM, Tombstone Campground, km 72 (Dempster Highway), Yukon

We have made it up to the Tombstone mountain range, about 75 km up the Dempster Highway. Unfortunately, the weather has not been cooperative, so we are stuck in the campground, huddling in a cook-shack with other travelers. Most of the other campers are on vacation, so we are unusual since our trip is for research. We are also unusual because unlike most visitors to this part of the world, we are NOT viewing large wildlife (bears, moose) but are instead spending our time searching for the tiny wildlife along the Dempster highway.

PhD student Crystal Ernst installing insect traps on the Yukon Tundra

Our team includes two graduate students from my laboratory, Crystal Ernst and Katie Sim. Crystal has been setting out “pan traps” (yellow bowls) to collect ground-dwelling arthropods (i.e., insects, spiders). Part of her PhD is about unraveling some of the complexities of arthropod-based food webs in the Arctic, and she is using these traps to collect critters that live on the tundra. Thankfully, her work does not require good weather! Katie is working on the population genetics of a high arctic wolf spider, Pardosa glacialis - and she needs some more specimens. We know that the species occurs near the Yukon-NWT border (in the Richardson mountains), about 300 km north of us. A post-doc, Dr. Laura Timms, is part of our team also - she studies plant-insect interactions in the North, and is focusing her research on insects that feed on Willow and Balsam Poplar trees. Our final team member is Dr. Barb Sharanowski, an entomology professor from the University of Manitoba - she is collecting parasitic wasps, with a goal of better understanding their evolution and diversity in northern environments. Unfortunately, Barb and Laura’s work is dependent on dry and warm weather, so they are hoping for good conditions!

I am here to find a small (< 4 mm) and curious Arachnid known as the “Arctic pseudoscorpion“. Pseudoscorpions are relatives of other Arachnids, and resemble scorpions, but without a tail. They are predators (of other invertebrates) that live in soil, leaf-litter, under bark, and under rocks. The species Wyochernes asiaticus lives under rocks beside creeks and rivers in the Yukon. It is a Beringian species, meaning it exists in North America in regions that were unglaciated during the last ice age, including many regions in the Yukon. The Dempster Highway travels directly through a lot of these regions. I have previously collected this species in the Yukon, and on this trip, I am hoping to gather more specimens to further understand its full distribution, and to collect data about its biology and life-history.

This morning, despite the rain, our team traveled to a half-dozen streams further south from this campground, and we had great success in pseudoscorpion hunting! Numerous specimens were found under rocks beside creeks, including females with their eggs held under their abdomen.

We are now drying out and I am about to finish preparing a seminar that our team will deliver tomorrow at the campsite. The Tombstone Park staff are keen to have researchers discuss their work with the general public - it’s a nice opportunity to share our research stories with other people traveling the Dempster. I am always thrilled that all types of audiences show keen interest and enthusiasm about insects and spiders.

Stay tuned…later this week will be Parts 2 and 3

Do spiders like to dance? Do spiders like music?

/ Chris Buddle / 6 Comments

A couple of comments on one of my previous posts piqued my curiosity about Arachnids and sound - one comment talked about how Harvestmen seemed to enjoy the reader’s singing, and another comment suggested a yellow sac spider moved and grooved (danced?) when a record player was playing tunes.

Huh?

So… it is well known that spiders respond to direct vibrations (i.e., through their webs), but what about sound waves that could be produced by singing or other forms of music? Do spiders like music? Do they like to dance?

A spider that likes music? Araneus cavaticus (photograph (c) by Tom Murray, published here with permission)

Being a good scientist, I looked to the literature. Behold, I found a paper published in 1966 in the journal Ecology, titled “Reactions of Orb-Weaving Spiders (Argiopidae) to Airborne Sounds” by Frings and Frings. In this paper, the authors used two common orb-web spiders, and asked whether spiders responded to airborne vibrations as well as to vibrations through their webs. Unlike previous papers at the time, these authors separated the two possible modes of vibration (i.e., direct vibrations versus airborne sounds). The Introduction of this paper is wonderful, and provides a series of anecdotes about spiders and sound, including a 1928 citation about how the sensory hairs of spiders moved to the sounds of a mandolin played 5 m away. As a mandolin player, I was very excited to read this - and I will keep an eye out for spiders when playing!

Frings and Frings collected spiders (including the common orb-web species Araneus cavaticus, of “Charlotte’s Web” fame - it is Charlotte A. Cavatica don’t you know!), used a fancy laboratory set-up to make sounds (and vibrations), and measured responses by their study species. For one species, the responses were the following ‘1) spasmodic extension of the front legs; (2) jerking of all the legs; (3) shaking the web vigorously by flexing and extending the legs’.

Results: indeed, their study species respond to airborne sounds, and their responses occur between 200 and 3000 cycles per second (Hertz) and between 90 and 110 decibels.

Let’s put that in perspective -

For Hertz (i.e. cycles per second, or pitch):

Strings on a mandolin range from about 196 Hz to 660 Hz; A barking dog has a range between about 400 Hz and 1000 Hz; The range of a typical human voice is between 80 Hz and 1100 Hz.

For Decibels (i.e., “loudness”)

A violin is between 82 and 92 dB; Singing can be up to 100 dB; A really loud rock concert can be up to 150 dB

So, if you sing loudly to a spider, play the mandolin for it, or take it to a rock concert, the sound waves produced can elicit responses in spiders.

(A barking dog will also work. Or, a dog playing a mandolin)

Might spiders like my mandolin playing more than my family?

Caveats: the results I mention are for two species only, and it would be interesting to see whether other species responds in a similar fashion. Also, I am personally very curious about how spiders respond to different styles of music - classical, bluegrass, punk rock? THIS is a great research question!

Reference: Fings, H, & Fings, M (1966). Reactions of Orb-Weaving Spiders (Argiopidae) to Airborne Sounds Ecology, 47 (4), 578-588 DOI: 10.2307/1933935

Thanks to Tom Murray for permission to use his photograph - more of his work can be viewed here.