Spiderday (#25) – February | Arthropod Ecology

It’s that time again! Spiderday – your monthly linkfest of all the best Arachnid stories from the past month. Let’s get started…

A wolf spider (genus Rabidosa). This photo by Sean McCann related to some daydreaming I’ve been doing, about collecting spiders.

This is my read and view of the month: Time to celebrate the diversity of Amblypygi, by Gil Wizen (inspired by this paper that described new species of these awesome arachnids)
A very good news for spider conservation: the Horrid ground-weaver has been found elsewhere, and photographed.
Some not-so-good news on spider conservation: the critically endangered peacock Tarantula
A day in the life of a spider lab. Yup. Lots of spider feeding to be done…
Here’s a very important paper for Arachnology, on the phylogenomics of spiders: notable is the ancient origin of the orb-web. Here’s a write-up on the story too (although the title is misleading…)
A study on Arachnophobia: “highly fearful participants overestimated the spider size“
A great guide to common house spiders in the UK (many of the species found in other parts of the world)
Spiders… long intertwined with art, culture and jewelry:

There was LOTS of press about this one: researchers looked into the taxonomy of Tarantulas in the USA, and one of the results is the “Johnny Cash” spider. Here’s another write-up from the BBC. Here’s the original paper.
More taxonomy: this female jumping spider has finally been described.
How to take a photo of a very venomous spider.
Um… spider kills snake?
It was “Darwin Day” earlier in February. Don’t forget, he observed and wrote about ballooning spiders.
A paper about zombie spiders
When your lover could just EAT YOU UP. A spidery Valentine’s day post.
Will your pets get bitten by spiders? What does science tell us about spider venom and our pets?
Wow: check out this Art by Thomas Shahan:

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Arthropod Ecology