Good Monday morning to all! I’m excited to be attending the Entomological Society of Canada’s annual meeting (you can follow along on twitter using the hashtag #ESCJAM2013).  Hope you have a good week ahead, and to help you start it right, here are some discoveries from the past while.

• A spider did not bite you. I LOVE THIS!

• Ohhh ahhh – a ‘gnome hat spider’ (as dubbed by Adrian Thysse)

• Spiders certainly are economically important: Toyota recalls vehicles due to ‘spider-related problems’. (thanks Bug Girl for tweeting that story)

• “Big-Ass Spider Movie” NO. NO. NO. (here’s a review –> read it, ok?)

• Poor spiders. So much bad press. Time for a lovely photo, perhaps? This one is a lynx spider from Crystal Ernst (Thanks, Crystal, for letting me post it here)

• The most interesting rove beetle in the world?  Ok, I’ll bite. Have a look!  (from Stelio Chatzimanolis)

• More beetles to cheer about: here are 85 new species of some beauties. 

• Evolution of color: from stick insects to peppered moths. A terrific read.

• 46 million year old fossil mosquito – with blood. It’s great when these stories about insects hit the ‘big’ news sites (from my Canadian perspective, this is CBC, of course)

• Determining arthropod abundance and diversity in urban habitats. Neat looking paper on that topic.

• I know you want it… the tweet of the week goes to the Logical Narwhal.

• Death of an order. (insect order, that is). An intriguing paper about Termites and their relatives (thanks to students in my introductory Entomology class for pointing out this paper, and the associated controversy)

• Interested in insect photography? Check out these thoughts about ‘just another bug on white’

• Pest managers are ecologists too. Darn right they are.

• Ever feel like your social calendar looks like this? (from “Wrong Hands“)

• All about grapes – in-depth, fascinating post by Malcolm Campbell. 

• A day in the life of a professor. 

• Creating an inclusive, professional blog. 

• In praise of exploratory statistics. 

• How field biologists die. Yes, driving cars in the riskiest thing we can do. But murder? WHAT?

• Children experiencing ‘wild lands’ is so important. 

• Discovering wonder in science. Some lovely writing by Kim Moynahan.

• Dreaming of the north: Time lapse video of an Arctic sunset.

• The unexpected world of biology: creature cast. Cool.

• To finish… an Icelandic Hymn – in a train station. Wow (thanks Jamin!)