SPIDERDAY is finally back – it’s been a few weeks, but the end of the term has been hectic. However, it’s time to catch up on some great Arachnid-themed links from the last little while.

This will also be my last post of 2015, so I’ll also take this opportunity to THANK YOU for reading and commenting on this blog. I also wish everyone a Happy Holidays! Arthropod Ecology will certainly keep on truckin’ in 2016.

Here’s looking at you… A close up of an Araneidae, from Insects Unlocked.

• Here’s a post on an often-overlooked family of spiders: The Oecobiidae, aka “star-legged spiders”
• Colour shifts in spiders. Fascinating biology!
• Cobwebs and their genetic secrets: this research is quite exciting, and has many potential applications in the future.
• The faces of Peruvian Amazon spider families. Photos are breathtaking, and you get to see great variation in form and function, too.
• Multi-modal communication in peacock spiders.
• Speaking of jumping spiders: what a resource! 27,000 images of Salticidae
• A phylogenetic classification for the Salticidae: an important paper
• This is outstanding: a very old book has a very old spider squashed between its pages (and you can tell the species, too)
• From back in November, how spider personalities affect pest control.
• Blue tarantulas. That is all.
• An interesting looking paper on mercury accumulation in arthropods, including spiders.
• Big spider webs. Yup, they sure are big. Super-big.
• Discover your inner Arachnid: what spider are you?
• Hunting Britain’s largest spiders
• To kill a wolf spider: the natural history of wasp and their spider prey.
• On that theme, here’s an interesting video... perhaps a bit gruesome

• Wonderful post on the natural history and biology of pseudoscorpions and harlequin beetles. Easily my Read Of The Week!
• Also on pseudoscorpions, I collaborated with thermal biologists to look at what happens when you heat up, cool down, and try to drown Arctic pseudoscorpions.
• Mites on our faces. Excellent coverage of excellent science.
• A bird-feeding tick and the implications for Lyme disease
• Australia has all kinds of amazing arachnids, including scorpions.
• On the evolution of weaponry in Arachnids. Great post that includes one of my favorite groups, the Opiliones.
• Spitting spiders can REALLY spit their silk.
• I was part of a “Secret Santa” (we called in Secret Pisaurid, to give it an arachnid theme!). My gift was incredible “SPIDER CARDS”. Wow. I’m in awe. Thanks so much to my secret pisaurid. Happy Holidays everyone!

Collectors cards, Arachnid style.