Spiderday (#17)

September 19, 2015September 19, 2015 / Chris Buddle

Arachnids: cool, amazing animals with lots of legs and lots of fascinating biology. SPIDERDAY brings you the best arachnid links from the past week. Here’s your 17th edition:

A wonderful shot of a crab spider: part of the brilliant “insects unlocked” project.

Arachnologists in some parts of the world are getting LOTS of questions about all the spiders showing up in houses, on buildings and just about everywhere. This happens every year around this time, ’cause it is autumn. Here’s a great summary of this (and my Read of The Week)
One very common species that people are noticing this time of year (at least in my neck of the woods) is Neoscona crucifera, and this post provides a great summary of the species.
Under the heading of “ridiculous“, there’s a company selling spider-proof sheds. Spoiler: don’t waste your money.
Wasps that turn spiders into the walking dead. Boom. (here’s another write up of the story)
Here’s a really wonderful blog about orb-weavers called ‘thorned heart’. It includes taxonomy, natural history and photographs.
They are finding some lovely spiders in Australia… Hello there indeed!
For the taxonomically inclined.. new species… more than that.. new Genus of spiders from southern Africa.
Spider love. Yeah, for the jumpers.
Oh dear: spider scare causes school bus crash.
Mitey Mites grabbing a ride: in this case, new species on beetles.
Want to kill dust mites? Stop making your bed. Well… it’s not that simple, but that is quite a headline!
Love the enthusiasm for spider silk in this video. SUPER STRONG SPIDER SILK YEAH!

Spiderday (#16)

September 12, 2015September 12, 2015 / Chris Buddle / Leave a comment

You latest edition of SPIDERDAY! (sorry, folks, it’s been a busy week, so I just don’t have as many links as usual)

An amazing photo of a Solifuges (aka Camel Spider), by Sean McCann

My Read of the Week is this story: a spider that looks and smells like bird droppings.
A “poison cave” in Romania hosts some incredible animals, including some Arachnids.
did you know this…? The rather famous peacock spiders were originally called “gliding spiders”, with a thought that they used their flaps as wings.
Jumping spider personalities change after exposure to pesticides (yeah, I know, tooting my own horn here!)
Love these fangs! A “mysterious” funnel-web spider in Australia found with blood-red fangs.
For the taxonomically inclined… a new species of Dysderidae from Turkey.
Now *this* is a handsome spider:

Spiderday (#15)

September 5, 2015 / Chris Buddle / 3 Comments

It’s that time of the week – SPIDERDAY! Your round-up of Arachnid links. Enjoy!

Tarantula! Wonderful illustration from the Biodiversity Heritage Library.

On the topic of Tarantulas, we had exciting news in our house this week…
On the natural history and biology of some relatively rare orb-web spiders. This is most certainly my Read of The Week.
A wonderful story: a shipment to a previous house owner ends up being a ‘return to sender’ parcel – this surprises the new homeowner because it contains an ill-looking tarantula. He is concerned, and takes it to a rescue centre (that’s a good-hearted person!)
Here is a fabulous resource for identifying brown widow spiders. They can be tricky…
A fascinating paper about factors affecting genotyping with spiders: this work relies on museum specimens. Another reason for vouchers…
For those with an interest in Salticidae taxonomy, Wayne Maddison and company published a reinterpretation of a jumping spider genus, Thiodina.
Here is some lovely spider art:

Spider bots are coming from you. Goofy and terrifying, all at once 🙂
I was reminded of this post, and paper, about how insects are crustaceans. So, how to Arachnids fit in? They remain ‘chelicerates’, of course.
On daddy-long-legs (Harvestmen) – “THAT IS NO SPIDER!”
My research on Arctic pseudoscorpions was featured in “Yukon North” – Ice-age relics lurk along the Dempster
Spiders tune their webs.
Speaking of webs, here’s a nice little video showing a lovely jumping spider looking after its web. So cute!

Spiderday (#14)

August 29, 2015 / Chris Buddle / 2 Comments

Here is the latest edition of SPIDERDAY! A perfect spot to check out the best ‘web’ links related to Arachnids. It’s sure to catch you…

From Alex Wild, a lovely amblypygid. Like that image? Here are more of his arachnid photos.

The ‘parasite of the day’ blog featured wonderful natural history about parasitoids of web-building spiders, and the parasitized spiders sometimes end up changing how they build their webs. My Read Of The Week
On the biology and natural history of ant-like spiders in the genus Castianeira
Brown recluse spider venom: how it works.
Here is a fascinating paper about what it means to be a ‘specialized’ predator. In this case, the questions focus on blood-feeding jumping spiders. (um, not exactly – how about jumping spiders that show preferences for feeding on blood-fed mosquitoes)
“American spiders and their spinningwork“. A classic from McCook, from the Biodiversity Heritage Library.
Widow spiders? They can get around… Here, reported from Tahiti (and some other islands) for the first time.
Many toy companies have some troubles figuring out where to put legs on spiders. Here’s my drawing to help them out:

An air quality monitoring station had a guest, and the arachnid messed the readings up. “A spider did it!”
Taxonomy FTW… eight new Mygalomorph species are described.
Spiders and the big screen… Predatoroonops – a genus of goblin spiders, all named in honour of characters from the movie Predator.
Wonderful research on black Widow web reduction… as a podcast. It’s worth a listen.
Urban gardens, spiders and landscapes: a paper to check out.
This is from a while ago, but worth a look again: some bizarre and beautiful “primitive” mites. Wow.
In tick-related news, here is a simply excellent overview of the growing global battle against blood-sucking ticks.
So, #Junkoff was a bit hit last week. Here’s my favourite:

Spiderday (#13)

August 22, 2015August 22, 2015 / Chris Buddle / 1 Comment

After a busy summer, and a lot of time away, I’m pleased to start up Spiderday again. Here are some arachnid-themed links pulled from the web over the past couple of weeks.

Here’s a nice looking spider – it’s a Selenops. There is exciting new research about these critters! (photo by Sean McCann)

The photo, above, provides a segue to my read of the week: some species of neotropical spiders don’t just ‘fall’ from trees, they can ‘glide’ and use their flat bodies as a type of sail to redirect them to the tree trunks. Wow…. just WOW. Here’s one take on this story, and here’s the original paper.
Nice spiders finish last – and determine the fate of the colony. Some really neat research about colonial spiders.
Tooting my own horn here: I was thrilled to see quite a lot of interest about our research on the effects of insecticides on jumping spider personalities.
Here is a Festschrift of interest: The life and times of Africa’s First Lady of Arachnology, Ansie Dippenaar-Schoeman.
Male wolf spiders do some eavesdropping.
Another tiny dancer (peacock spiders…. of course!)
If you don’t follow the Biodiversity Heritage Library, you really should. Case in point:

An important statement about tick-borne diseases, put out by the Entomological Society of America.
More about Lyme – here is a post about some important new research on how/why the disease symptoms vary so much, and treatment implications.
On varroa mites, honey bees, and pesticides. It’s complicated.
Confusion in the world of Arachnology: Opiliones (harvestmen) or Mite? (Acari)????
Bioindicators with eight legs: water mites can help inform us about water quality (oh, insects can do that too)
Tooting my own horn again: It was so wonderful that CBC science & technology picked up my story about pseudoscorpions and wrote a nice piece on these animals. Curiosity, passion and arachnology FTW.
Here’s a wonderful video about arthropods of homes, in Peru. It’s here because there is loads of great spider coverage:

Spiderday (#12)

August 1, 2015August 1, 2015 / Chris Buddle / Leave a comment

I’m delighted to bring you the twelfth instalment of SPIDERDAY! All your arachnid links, at your fingertips!

Please note: I’m going to be away (vacation time…) for part of August – your next Spiderday will likely be on 22 August. Hope you can wait that long!

From Jonathan Kolby, an awesome net-casting spider! Amazing animals.

Green Lynx Spiders – friend or foe? My Read of the Week.
A moth that mimics a jumping spider. And if you don’t believe the photo, there’s a paper about it too.
The Spider Forest: Here’s a great field work adventure, in which spiders kind of get in the way of research.
Boom: new spider species (in Kerala). Always good news.
Wolf spider cannibalism? Yes, it’s important.
Spider of the Dominican Republic: there’s a blog for that.
Here’s a very interesting post that is all about how wasps take down spiders: spiders are prey too!
Here’s a video on that topic:

in New Zealand, here’s a post about mites that may prove to be important biological control agents against wasps. Mite-y powerful!
On damselflies and mites: Regionally widespread parasitic water mites have relatively broad host species ranges. Nifty paper!
An unlucky Opiliones:

Spiderday (#11)

July 25, 2015 / Chris Buddle / Leave a comment

Here are your latest Arachnid-links… SPIDERDAY is here!

Some great jumping spider photos from Daniel, taken with a magnifying glass and a phone. Impressive!

Lyssomanes species, from Daniel Llavaneras, reproduced here with permission.

Cannibalism trials with wolf spiders, in Alaska. Wonderful experiments being done in the North. My Read of the Week.
Dazzling dancers of the animal kingdom.… and peacock spiders take first place.
Speaking of jumping spiders, if you like the Salticidae AND taxonomy, here are five new species from China.
A website all about spider silk research in Australia.
An older post, but a good one. Some facts about arachnids. (Yes, there are eight facts).
Here is my favourite spider-themed Tweet from the past week (in part a response to this ridiculous story)

Here is an interesting paper about selection for costly sexual traits in a Linyphiidae spider species: note that the ‘cephalic structures’ of males of the species serves as a type of nuptial feeding device for females. Wow.
A pine cone spider collector keeps on collecting spiders from pine cones. Fascinating stuff for arachnophiles.
Putting spiders on little treadmills in virtual reality worlds. It’s science, folks.
Spider-themed mascots? There are some out there… for example, check out the University of Richmond. (Too bad their spider isn’t really anatomically correct)
More Arachnid taxonomy – a new species of Opiliones (Harvestmen) from Turkey.
On the topic of Opiliones, check out this video that illustrated an aggregation of these amazing Arachnids:

Spiderday (#10)

July 18, 2015July 16, 2015 / Chris Buddle / Leave a comment

Spiderday is back! I was away for a little while, but am happy to bring you some arachnid stories pulled from the web over the last little while.

But first, do check out photos from Colin Hutton:

A tailless whip scorpion, by Colin Hutton (reproduced here with permission)

Spider eye-spots? The back end of pirate spiders look like the front end of nursery web spiders. Huh? Some amazing natural history – this is my Read Of The Week.
Spiders can ‘sail across the water’. Indeed, they are sailors, as well as aviators.
Sad to hear about the passing of spider enthusiast Bob Thomson –here’s a lovely write-up about his amazing life, and his interest in arachnids.
The Dwarf Spider ID gallery. A truly amazing resource.
A researcher finds some incredible spiders from Ecuador.
Wolf spiders can be super common and abundance, especially those in the genus Pardosa – here’s a nice post about these thin-legged Lycosids.
Boom: here is a DNA barcode reference library for Canadian spiders. Interestingly, the authors suggest diversity of spiders in Canada may be 30-50% higher current estimates.
I have just returned from a trip to the Yukon – we found these critters, again:

File this under ‘cool things you never knew before’ – black widow spider silk was used to make gun sight cross hairs in WWII.
Personalities? Social Spiders? Here’s the link for you.
A terrific overview of tube-web spiders (Family Segestriidae).
In this paper, a novel mating plug mechanism is described (along with a new species of Salticidae described)
You can take a summer course about spiders, in Nantucket. Looks great!
An excellent write-up about some recent research about black widow spiders, in which “Male black widow spiders destroy large sections of the female’s web during courtship and wrap it up in their own silk“.
Brilliant jumping spiders – a bit of natural history about Phidippus clarus.
Why the heck are we finding so many scorpions and spiders in our fruit… and should we worry? Here’s a good take on the topic.
We are often enamored by courtship of jumping spiders, but wolf spider courtship is pretty great too!

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:

Arthropod Ecology

Writings about arthropod ecology, arachnids & academia at McGill University

Spiderday