Arachnews: March 16, 2020

In this week’s roundup of arachnid art, news, and science:

  • amazing nature photos (including two possibly undescribed species!)
  • the latest developments
  • breaking down that mouse vs. scorpion fight from Netflix’s Earth at Night
  • a new genus of (adorable) African jumping spiders
  • the “are horseshoe crabs arachnids?” debate returns

Read it on Medium.

Arachnews: March 9, 2020

New issues of Systematic and Applied Acarology, Experimental and Applied Acarology, and Acarologia means lots and lots of mite papers this week. There’s also nematodes, hair- and/or eyebrow-raising medical case studies, pretty spider photos, bacterial endosymbionts, and more.

Read it on Medium.

Continue reading Arachnews: March 9, 2020

Arachnews: March 2, 2020

In this week’s roundup of all things arachnid (mostly spiders this week, though):

  • cool nature photos and videos; egg sacs seem to be a theme
  • debunking the latest viral scare about cork-lid trapdoor spiders
  • research about not-so-parasitic mites, medical uses of venom, and tarantula embryonic development
  • extremely weird new species
    …and more!

Go check it out on Medium.

Arachnews: February 10, 2020

In this week’s Arachnews:

  • hits the mainstream media, plus more insight from biologists
  • 3D horseshoe crab fossils
  • lots of new research on medical applications of scorpion and spider venom
  • some absolutely gorgeous tarantulas
  • a truly bonkers paper on spider husbandry
    …and more!

Read the whole thing on Medium.

Arachnews: February 3, 2020

In this week’s Arachnews:

  • a roundup of news
  • Sydney funnel-web season in Australia
  • jumping spiders in eyeliner
  • the secret to capturing moths with spider silk
  • new species named after mathematician Cedric Villani; Gollum; Mithra; and the Gullah and Amazigh people
    …and more!

Read more on Medium.

Arachnews: January 27, 2020

In this week’s Arachnews:

  • a surprising discovery about dragline silk
  • how to extract and observe face mites (you don’t need much more than a microscope!)
  • the evolution of aquatic spiders
  • circadian rhythms in spiders and mites
  • as always, new species and geographic records
    …and more!

Read it on Medium.

Arachnews: January 20, 2020

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!

Read it on Medium.

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.