At the end of 2018, I was burnt out on politics, and I decided to instead write about something I genuinely loved and could change people’s minds about: spiders. I started writing up the various bits of arachnid-related things I come across, calling it “Arachnews”.
In April, Sebastian Alejandro Echeverri asked Spider Twitter who might be interested in a group blog, to provide better coverage of arachnids than the usual “creepy-crawly” stuff you see in the news. I jumped aboard, and we switched from my “random bookmarks of things people send me” system to a spreadsheet of Google Scholar alerts. I had no idea how much stuff was out there, guise. It’s a whole new world. Yes, like the song, but, like, with more spiders.
Here are my 2019 highlights—not just personal favourites, but stuff you’ll see popping up again in years to come.
Coolest photos so far
There were so many it’s hard to choose, but for me, these three are definitely memorable.
Arts & culture
- Internet OG ZeFrank returned after a long hiatus with a new “True Facts” video about bolas spiders, then another one on ogre-faced spiders.
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Adrian Tchaikovsky followed up his uplifted-Portia novel Children of Time with Children of Ruin. Now with more octopuses!
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@Arachno_Cosas, a Mexican arachnologist, accumulated a huge following identifying and demystifying arachnids on Twitter.
- I’ve linked this SciShow video to people like 500 times already.
Research
- Tone Killick, who last year captured a hacklemesh weaver producing trophic eggs for her brood, documented the flower crab spider Misumena vatia changing colours.
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Tarantula and frog are friends. Emanuele Biggi described his discovery of Pamphobeteus tarantulas living commensally with small frogs.
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The results of the Great Black Widow Race. The paper [S-H] even got NYT coverage. Upon getting her PhD, Catherine Scott commemorated her research with an amazing Western black widow tattoo.
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A study found that more aggressive Anelosimus social spider colonies weathered tropical storms better. But remember—we should fear climate change, not spiders.
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A 500-million-year-old chelicerate—the earliest ancestor of arachnids—found in a fruitful Burgess Shale site.
News and Events
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The International Congress of Arachnology in Canterbury, New Zealand, livetweeted by many at #Arachno19.
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AAS 2019 in Virginia. I especially appreciated dispatches from PZ Myers, the longtime scientist-blogger who recently switched from zebrafish to spiders.
RIP
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Marianne Shockley. (See Nancy Miorelli’s thread on Twitter.)
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Andreas Kay. Links to his research and works are collected here. ZeFrank’s video is a lovely tribute.
Spiders eating things
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Roses are red,
Arachnids are awesome,
A Peruvian tarantula
was seen preying on an opossum. -
Related: An Australian huntsman was spotted eating a pygmy possum. Do read the indispensable Caitlin Henderson’s take.
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Also related: In a photo that’s sure to circulate around the Internet for years to come, social huntsmen take over a pygmy possum nest box.
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Roses are red,
Australia has spiders,
This Eriophora
Caught a feathertail glider. -
Roses are red,
Amphibians like bogs,
Giant fishing spider
found eating poison frog.
Taxonomy
Changes
Species are constantly being reclassified as we update our knowledge, so it is very important to keep up-to-date. A few big/relevant ones:
せっかく描いたので、学名（+英語名）も一斉に並んでみます。
一部のクモやサソリでないクモガタ類の英語名に spider や scorpion がついたせいで、英語界隈におけると誤解を招きやすいものになる。また、「ダニ」に対応する英語名は存在せず、tick（マダニ）とmite（他のダニ）として区別される。 pic.twitter.com/9oAurUmH6L— Jun (@ni075) March 3, 2019
All right here we go let's THREAD. "A Critical Appraisal of the Placement of Xiphosura (Chelicerata) with Account of Known Sources of Phylogenetic Error". Feel free to read along.
Official link: https://t.co/AgmMykNJ7T
Sci-Hub: https://t.co/0u4kfyTao7— Neville Park (inactive) (@neville_park) February 18, 2019
- HORSESHOE CRABS. A provocative new phylogenetic analysis from Sharma’s lab [S-H] found that horseshoe crabs, rather than being a sister group to arachnids, were arachnids. This has pretty big implications for evolutionary history. Then, a few months later, researchers from England were like, “Nu-uh.” I can’t wait to see how this eventually works out.
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Late last year, a bunch of scientists said golden silk orbweavers should be in their own family, Nephilidae. Then some other bunches of scientists said they were totally wrong and the nephilids should just be a sub-family of Araneidae. This will probably go back and forth for years to come. At any rate, everyone agrees that a number of species formerly in Nephila should be in their own genus, Trichonephila. That includes the Jorō spider T. clavata and the “banana spider” T. clavipes.
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Several species formerly in Brachypelma were moved to a new genus, Tliltocatl. This includes some species common in the pet trade, like the Honduran curly-hair Tliltocatl albopilosum, and the Mexican red rump Tliltocatl vagans. Non-Nahuatl-speaking spider lovers are grappling with how to say “Tliltocatl“. Here’s @Arachno-Cosas’ pronunciation.
New species
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Several new species of peacock spiders—oh, hell, just see the complete list so far.
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A new Jotus named after Karl Lagerfeld.
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A stunning new widow species, the Phinda button spider, found and formally described in South Africa.
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Uroballus carlei, a jumping spider that looks like a fuzzy caterpillar.
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The newly described Sri Lankan tarantula Chilobrachys jonitriantivansicklei is 1) beautiful, and 2) a solid argument for character limits on species names.
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Birupes simoroxigorum, a gorgeous newly discovered tarantula from Malaysia, seems to have been poached by the tarantula breeders who collected it. The collectors are now selling wild-caught B. simoroxigorum as captive-bred, for high prices. And the British arachnologists who officially described the species may have broken the law by working with illegally collected specimens.
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A new recluse spider, Loxosceles tenochtitlan, found in the heart of Mexico City!
New families
New taxa are often introduced when people are re-examining already described species and realize some ought to be in their own category. It’s very unusual for people to stumble across some strange creature they’ve never seen before that turns out to be only distantly related to any others. But that happened twice this year!
- Myrmecicultoridae, a family of spiders living inside ant nests in the Chihuahuan desert.
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Otilioleptidae, a family of pale, gangly, eyeless opilionids from caves in the Andes.
I am looking forward to what 2020 brings. I’m hoping to write about new research in more detail beyond quick blurbs, though Lord knows I love a quick blurb. I want to do more journal-type stuff about the spiders and other bugs I see throughout the year. May even try to pitch some science/nature pieces to places, who knows?