Spiderday (the ninth)

June 27, 2015June 27, 2015 / Chris Buddle / 1 Comment

Here’s your ninth edition of SPIDERDAY! Some arachnid-related links from the past week.

Please note: I’m just heaving off to the Yukon for a couple of weeks of remote field work (it will involve arachnids!). Spiderday will likely return on 18 July.

Wow – this is a Thomisidae (crab spider) that’s an ant-mimic. In Australia, of course. Photo by Alex Wild.

“An estimated 25,000 diving tarantulas live along a 10 kilometre stretch of floodplain“. Australia – you have the best arachnids. Honestly. This is my read of the week.
Always good news when new spider species are described: here are ten new species from Madagascar. In this work, the authors document ‘remarkable’ local diversity within the genus Anelosimus.
Cuff links, spider style. Nice.
The American Arachnological Society had its meeting last week: you can check out some tweets to gets a sense of the conference.
Click here to read about a remarkable overreaction to finding a spider in bananas. Sigh.
You just don’t hear about these critters very often: The formidable “jaws” of the solifugae (camel spiders, or wind scorpions). Not convinced…? Here you go:

Scorpions, anyone? How about GIANT ones. An amazing post with stunning images that you just won’t believe!
Some very handsome Opiliones (Harvestmen, or daddy-longlegs)
This is from a while ago, but worth another read. The fastest land animal (scaled to relative body size) is… a MITE!
Tips for tick safety. Worth a look.
Here’s a great technique that arachnophiles are sure to use!

Spiderday (the eighth)

June 20, 2015 / Chris Buddle / Leave a comment

Hip Hip Hooray! It’s Spiderday! I’ve snared some of the best arachnidy links from this past week. But first… a big hug for you:

A spider hug.

A spider species rediscovered in the UK, after over 100 years. A wonderful way that using “the web” can help science. My Read Of The Week.
How do you trap a trap-door spiders? Use a lure, of course. What a great idea!
We all know spiders as predators… but things eats spiders too. Here’s an overview of when spiders are prey.
Magic spiders: Here’s some wonderful science about how a spider lures moths by using sexy smells.

A spider found for the first time in Canada: Myrmarachne formicaria (photo by V. Levesque-Beaudin, reproduced here with permission)

A jumping spider found for the first time in Canada: Myrmarachne formicaria (photo by V. Levesque-Beaudin, reproduced here with permission)

At the Grant Museum the “Specimen of the week” is an Opiliones. Lovely critters – and cousins to the other arachnids.
On birds, lice, mites and a complicated, wonderful series of natural history notes and questions, from Heather Proctor.
Burying beetles are well known for carrying passengers. These passengers are mites.
Speaking of mites as passengers, here’s a paper that shows “Flies that are burdened by mites are expected to exhibit lower flight endurance compared to uninfected flies.” Yes… flies carry mites too.
The world checklist of Quill Mites. Awesome.
Here’s what tick eggs REALLY look like.
Here’s a video to accompany that last link – the life cycle of sheep tick, observed in laboratory conditions – this is kind of cool and kind of gross all at the same time:

Spiderday (the seventh)

June 11, 2015June 13, 2015 / Chris Buddle / Leave a comment

Welcome to spiderday. THE place to get all the stories about arachnids, from the past week. And boy oh boy it was a good week!

Let’s get started:

A spider from Singapore: it vibrates its web at high speed if it’s threatened. Wow. Photo by Chthoniid, reproduced here with permission.

Perhaps the best news of the week: a critically endangered spiders is saved from a planning development in the UK. Spider conservation FTW! That’s my read of the week.
You must see this: from Nicky Bay (on Facebook) – a spider with an extended ‘tubercle’ on its abdomen. What’s it for??
The Hippie Spider. That is all.
Some surprising animals that like water. Spiders are on that list, don’t you know.
Wonderful photos of a running crab spider mom.
What happens if you ask undergraduate students to draw a spiders? The results are quite something! Some are amazingly accurate. Some are, well, not so accurate:

A spider of sorts.

This is a simply fabulous post about figuring out whether or not you might have a brown recluse (spoiler: it’s #notabrownrecluse)
Want to go on a safari? How about a spider safari? Sounds like fun to me.
This is neat: spider and centipede venom evolved from insulin-like hormone.
Cobweb Hotel (1936) – Um, it’s one of the oddest spider-themed youtube videos you will ever come across.
This is a mitey good pun:

A mitey good pun.

Family flees home after finding a spider egg sac. That’s an overreaction. Sigh.
Tick watch: beyond Lyme disease
Canadians: here are your high risk areas for Lyme disease
Ticked off: here are things we DON’T know about Lyme disease
Finally, your friendly Public Spider Announcement:

Spiderday (the sixth)

June 6, 2015 / Chris Buddle / Leave a comment

Here it is… the sixth installment of SPIDERDAY! I scoured the “web”, and found you all the arachnological links from last week:

Not a spider, but an Opiliones (Harvestmen, or Daddy Long Legs). Photo by Nash Turley.

The “Big Bad Spider“: a wonderful post about why spiders might so often be featured (in art, books, culture) as monsters and villains.
A spider’s egg sac does not always produce spiders.
Always great to see more species of spiders described: in this case, some arachnids from Australia, including lovely Mygalomorphs.
More on mygalomophs: this paper shows a radiation of cryptic, endemic species in California.
Catherine Scott takes on the crusade of convincing people the spiders they are worried about are NOT brown recluse spiders. Good for you, Catherine!
On the “Stylish Academic”, a Q & A with Arachnologist Michelle Reeve
Spider book update: help decide what common species should show up in an upcoming book about North American spiders.
Fortuitously, last Saturday was #SpiderSaturday. That’s awesome.
No, Daniel, these are not freckles:

Dan Johnson has been Tweeting some nice images and natural history about northern scorpions, found in Alberta, Canada.
Ticks can have a very significant impact on wildlife: here’s excellent coverage about “ghost moose”
Varroa mites are well known to beekeepers. But how do they make their way into hives? ..by smelling like bees, of course.
A small mite was clinging to the leg of a flying ant when it was trapped….forever….
Here’s is some simply fantastic biology and natural history about a desert-dwelling mite and its incredible feeding adaptations. This is my arachnological read of the week.
I’ll leave this here for you: a mitey feeding frenzy:

Spiderday (the fifth)

May 30, 2015May 30, 2015 / Chris Buddle / 3 Comments

Here’s your fifth instalment of SPIDERDAY here on the arthropod ecology blog: all the arachnid links from last week:

Pseudoscorpions ‘catching a ride’ on an insect. Photo by Sean McCann

Pseudoscorpions are among the most amazing (and understudied) of the Arachnids: small, wonderful animals with incredible biology. Catherine Scott wrote a simply terrific post about these lovely arachnids.
Lyme disease is on the rise in Canada. Watch for ticks, folks.
Poetry with a spider-theme. Here’s “A noiseless patient spider” by Walt Whitman.
The musical, flirtatious side of a common spider. (this story was featured last week on Spiderday, but it’s great that the BBC picked it up)
Yay! How great it is when people work through some of their fears about spiders:

Here’s a photo and a bit of biology about a simply gorgeous Tarantula species from Colombia.
Black widow spiders in your fruit? here’s a post that dispels some myths.
If you are visiting London: A museum does an exhibit on spiders.
A very handy guide to the eyes of spiders was making the rounds on the Twitterverse. I stupidly shared it without properly crediting the illustrator. (Sorry)
Want to learn about the Anapidae? (A family of spiders) – here’s a post for you.
Here’s a feature about Jurgen Otto and his dancing spiders. You know, these ones:

Spiderday (the fourth)

May 23, 2015May 23, 2015 / Chris Buddle / Leave a comment

Congratulations – you’ve made it through the whole week, and are now ready for SPIDERDAY! Some Arachnological finds from the past week:

First, amazing image of a developing spider:

Yes, they are adorable. (also, Cthulhu)

Of, you know, it’s just wolf spiders singing and purring. Terrific research, and FTW, this site also has sound files!
Spiders and Lego. Is there anything better? Wonderful post and really neat experiment!
Wow – some amazing natural history here about a parasitoid wasp that affects a spider so that the web architecture is modified.
Why are we so afraid of spiders? (A re-post of a re-post…the original is here)
On the taxonomy side, here’s a revision of ant-mimicking spiders from the western Pacific. They are *very* nifty spiders.
An important paper for spider taxonomists: Resolving the phylogeny of the Linyphiidae.
The Velvet spiders: high society.
Spiders raining down on Australia: this story got a lot of press last week. Ballooning spiders really are wonderful, and although “mass ballooning” events may not be that common, they are natural!

A quick sketch of what it looks like when a spider “takes off” by ballooning.

Surprise! Jumping spiders see more colours that you can… (actually, I’m not that surprised)
Congratulations to Arachnologist Dr. Maggy Hardy for being the “@RealScientists” this past week. She did a great job tweeting about SO many wonderful things, including arachnids.
Spider-themed paper is the Presidential Award Winner (best paper from 2014) from the American Society of Naturalists.
Arlo Pelegrin posted another great tweet showing more great spidery anatomy.
First record of the Pseudoscorpion family Cheiridiidae from Iran.
The brown dog tick has become resistant to permethrin: bad news for dog owners (um, and not great for dogs, either)
You just don’t hear enough about Uropygids (whip scorpions). Here’s an overview of the Thelyphoninae.
The top ten species were unveiled. A spider, of course, was among this list: the fabulous ‘cartwheeling’ spider… here’s a video of that species:

Spiderday (the third)

May 16, 2015May 16, 2015 / Chris Buddle / Leave a comment

Hey Hey, it’s SPIDERDAY again! The day of the week in which you can find some links about wonderful Arachnids, from last week. (you can check out past editions here).

Here’s a stunning jumping spider: Habronattus americanus (by Sean McCann)

Some spidery links:

Here’s a wonderful post about behavioural observations of mating strategies of jumping spiders (including the species featured in the photograph above). I especially like how this work was done under natural conditions.
Spiders are raining down on parts of Australia (lucky them, I say!)
Lots of spidery things happening in Australia: Here’s a post about how rainfall is ‘flushing out’ funnel web spiders… but they are needed for venom collection! Call your local arachnologist if you find one!
An artist turns spider webs into amazing sculptures. Wow.
Here’s som amazing art by Christi Belcourt, and if you scroll down you will see “Grandmother Spider”.
Don’t know how I missed this paper back in January – looks fascinating! Community assembly on remote islands: a comparison of Hawaiian and Mascarene spiders

The other Arachnids:

Ticks: you should watch out for these. Photo by Alex Wild.

Here’s an an excellent post about “Tickspotters” – resources to understand ticks, understand prevention. Here’s a related link that provides excellent Tick identification guides. Why all of this now? It’s Lyme Disease Awareness month, that’s why.
Male mites are “not so clever” in showing preference for dead females.
Here’s a report about how the destructive (to honey bees) Varroa mite *almost* made it to Australia.
Some pretty incredible life history here: Matriphagy in pseudoscorpions (with Videos).

To finish, check out this Tweet: yes, folks, spiders eat spiders.

Thanks for following along! Keep me apprised of neat Arachnid stories, and I’ll include them in next week’s Spiderday.

Arthropod Ecology

Writings about arthropod ecology, arachnids & academia at McGill University

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