Social Behavior in Spiders

According to New Scientist a new species of spiders has been discovered that lives in groups and cooperates when hunting: According to Avilés, there are over 39,000 identified spider species. While she has seen just over 20 species cooperate, she has never encountered any species quite like Theridion nigroannulatum. The spiders live in nests that [...]

Spiders: One from the Archive

You naughty, naughty people! Come looking for kinky spider lovin ! Come on admit it, thats why you here! Although I have posted some nasty buggers, it’s not that kind of nasty!

Spiderweb Trapped in Amber

Awhile back I mentioned the discovery of a 120-115 million year old orb weaver trapped in amber. National Geographic and New Scientistboth have a story on a spider web trapped in amber. The find dates to about 110 mya.

Ecology of 30,000,000 Year Old Spiders

Science Daily has an interesting article on spiders trapped in amber. This is a subject I have blogged about previously here. According to the article 671 species of spiders, dating to approximately 30 million years ago, from the Baltic and the Carribean were compared. Here is a picture of one:

New Species of Assassin Spiders Discovered

According to the California Academy of Sciences nine new species of assassin spiders (such as the one pictured above) have been discovered in Madagascar: These tiny arachnids in the Archaeidae family are only about 2 mm (less than 1/8 inch) long, but their bizarre fangs and spider-hunting practices have earned them a reputation as the [...]

Blood Drinking Spiders!

The above is a jumping spider native to Africa: Evarcha culicivora, is found only around Lake Victoria in Kenya and Uganda. A species of jumping spider, or salticid, it usually hunts insects on tree trunks and buildings. It stalks its prey rather than trapping it in a web. At the moment it is pretty unique. [...]

20,000,000 Million Year Old Spider

The above is a picture of a 20,000,000 year old spider trapped in amber. Sciectists recently created an interesting method for studying the creature – shades of Jurassic Park. According to BBC News: Palaeontologist Dr David Penney, of the University of Manchester, found the 4cm long by 2cm wide fossil during a visit to a [...]

Black Widow Update

About a month ago I did a post on the Brown Recluse and the Black Widow. I have discovered an interesting article on widow spiders so I am publishing a link to it for those who are interested. It is in Science in Africa a great online magazine. The Button Spiders of Southern Africa .

Friday Spider Blogging, Or Poisonous Spiders are my Totemic Animals!

You naughty, naughty people! Come looking for kinky spider lovin ! Come on admit it, that’s why you here! Although I have posted some nasty buggers, it’s not that kind of nasty! It all started back in the mid nineties. My wife, my two daughters and I had moved out of married student housing (in [...]