This week’s Arachnews is a shorter one, as I’m catching up on a backlog of papers to sort. In this edition: charismatic Habronattus jumping spiders, the return of Silkhenge, fallout of the Australian bushfires, the latest volley in the are-horseshoe-crabs-arachnids debate, and more!
Category: arachnids
Arachnews: January 13, 2020
In this week’s Arachnews: spider/human jam sessions, the European spider of the year, Australian bushfires and the Arthropocalypse, tracking ticks, name changes and newly described species, and more.
Arachnews: January 6, 2020
In 2020, we’re switching to weekly—because there’s just too much art, writing, news, and scientific research for a measly monthly digest. In this edition:
- funny & educational Twitter threads
- tattoos!
- social spider evolution
- how mites and spiders cope with heat
- new recluse spider in Mexico
- new South African widow spider (with purple silk)!
- a glossary of the jargon I used in the article
and more! Read it on Medium.
The Year In Spiders: 2019
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. Continue reading The Year In Spiders: 2019
Arachnews: November 2019
- the usual stunning photos of divers arachnids
- lots of research on ecology, pest control of mites (often with mites), venom, and tick-borne disease
- spiders in the age of the dinosaurs
- intriguing endosymbiont discoveries
- rhino ticks! elephant ticks!
- a bunch of Brachypelma tarantulas have been moved to a new genus, Tliltocatl
- some very cool new finds, like new liphistiid species and ancient troglobitic harvies
Check it out over at Arachnofiles on Medium.
Arachnews: October 2019
Whoops, forgot to post this after it came out! Anyway, the October edition of Arachnews has lots of stuff:
- award-winning spider portraits
- cute mite faces
- #Arachtober art
- how to extract spider venom
- jumping spiders on caffeine
- EXTREME! 🛹 sexual size dimorphism
Do go check it out, clap, etc.
Arachnews: September 2019
My regular roundup of arachnid-related art, news, and science is up at Arachnofiles! In this month’s Arachnews:
- new ZeFrank!
- quality photos, memes, and merch
- educational articles about spider silk, Spider Season, and more
- arachnid relationships with parasitic wasps, ants, and fungus
- new Portia personality paper
- new trade protections—and expanded range—for Poecilotheria, the popular tarantula genus also known as “pokies”
And lots more! Go, read, “clap”, etc.
Arachnews: August 2019
This past month was very busy, as I have been making up for all the work I missed recovering from surgery. So this Arachnews is rather late. But, tons of great stuff! In this month’s edition: rainbow-faced spiders, the results of the Great Black Widow Race, the goods on that “climate change making spiders more aggressive” story, a scorpion-inspired pressure sensor, a new Portia paper, and more.
I’ve also changed the formatting up a bit. Links to the original papers are now posted at the end of each item, accompanied by Sci-Hub links unless they’re open access (marked with a 🔓️).
Arachnews: July 2019
In this month’s edition of Arachnews: some amazing photography, cute cartoons, seal nasal mites, beetle-riding pseudoscorpions, ethical treatment of spiders, the evolution of sociality, and some beautiful newly described species. Go check it out.
Introducing Arachnofiles
So I’ve joined a new group blog, Arachnofiles! We’re a bunch of spider fans (both arachnologists and amateurs) who are hoping to create some quality stories that go beyond the dreary “creepy-crawly, ugh” angle you see in mainstream media coverage and shed light on current research. You can find the latest Arachnews posts there. And there’s a lot more content, because now we’ve got a group spreadsheet for adding links, and it’s not just one lonely, non-scientist person’s Firefox bookmarks.
I’ll still post updates here when a new post goes up, but if you use Medium, you can also follow Arachnofiles and, uh, engage there. And if you come across any neat spider-related stuff, please send it my way!