Posted on January 27, 2009 by Cheshire
I’ve written a few times about the reputation of the brown recluse (Loxoceles reclusa) and how much of it’s reputation is undeserved. It’s bite, as is known from popular culture, causes a wound that is indeed pretty horrific. However, the gruesome nature of the bite makes it a scapegoat for many cases of necrosis.
I’ve [...]
Filed under: Arachnology, Biochemistry, Medical, Venom | Tagged: Arachnology, Araneae, Cheiracanthium, Culture, Loxoceles reclusa, Medical, Sac Spiders, Spiders, Venom | Leave a Comment »
Posted on January 22, 2009 by Cheshire
Water is important to disease vector arthropods in many different ways. For some, this is obvious. Mosquitoes and blackflies need water to breed. A large amount of the effort that goes into controlling mosquitoes in malaria-ridden areas goes into researching where they breed after floods.
For others, it’s more subtle but still very important. Usually, most [...]
Filed under: Arachnology, Parasitology | Tagged: Acari, Arachnology, Parasitology, Ticks | Leave a Comment »
Posted on January 19, 2009 by Cheshire
Last week, I made a post about a species of spider whose ecological niche is basically your garage. This species is what is known as a synanthropic species…a kind of animal who is very closely allied with people in terms of where it lives. The particular spider I discussed had venom similar to a species [...]
Filed under: Arachnology, Culture, Medical | Tagged: Arachnology, Araneae, Brown Recluse, Culture, Loxoceles reclusa, Medical, Spiders | 3 Comments »
Posted on January 12, 2009 by Cheshire
Many species of spider make their living around human habitations. Some of these guys can be very common where they are found. Occasionally, people do get bitten and do experience adverse effects. However, the incidence of these bites is far lower than most people realize. The vast majority of spider bites go unreported simply because [...]
Filed under: Arachnology, Biochemistry, Medical, Soapbox, Urban legends, Venom | Tagged: Arachnology, Aranae, Araneomorphs, Biochemistry, Black Widows, Latrodectus, Medical, Spiders, Steatoda, Venom | 7 Comments »
Posted on January 10, 2009 by Cheshire
Atrax robustus is amongst the most toxic spiders in the world. They’re famous for this, and there are all sorts of myths and legends about them. Hell, their wikipedia page makes them sound like the Jason Voorhees of the spider world.
The females live in burrows in the ground and tackle everything which stumbles across their [...]
Filed under: Arachnology, Medical, Urban legends | Tagged: Arachnology, Aranae, Atrax robustus, Medical, Mygalamorphae, Spiders | 1 Comment »
Posted on January 5, 2009 by Cheshire
I do quite a bit of writing on spiders. Many entomologists deal with spiders, mites and other arachnids in their everyday working life. They’re important, ubiquitous predators. To this entomology undergrad, they’re essentially honorary insects.
Everyone knows spiders spin webs. They can be organized and beautiful, such as this orb weaver web
They can be complex and [...]
Filed under: Arachnology, Bug Pictures, Evolutionary Biology, Fossils, Science | Tagged: Arachnology, Araneae, evolution, Evolutionary Biology, Grass spiders, Mesothelids, Mygalamorphs, Orb-weavers, Science, Spider Fossils, Spider Pictures, Spiders, Tarantulas, Transitional fossils, Uropygids, Vinegaroons | 1 Comment »
Posted on December 30, 2008 by Cheshire
Many spiders get a really bad rap merely because they have hideously toxic venom.
Okay, that’s actually a really good reason to be very, very careful when dealing with some spiders. Especially Black Widows.
Black widows in areas they live are pretty much ubiquitous. I got the chance to collect them while I was in Texas, and [...]
Filed under: Arachnology, Science, Science Journalism, Soapbox | Tagged: Arachnology, Aranae, Black Widows, Spiders | Leave a Comment »
Posted on December 25, 2008 by Cheshire
So I haven’t been on the blogosphere for too long, but my weblog is just starting to get some decent traffic (mostly as a result of the researchblogging posts I try to do about once a week or so) and I’m just becoming aware of some of the conflicts that take place regularly on the [...]
Filed under: Academia, Arachnology, Blag, Culture, General Entomology, Philosophy, Science, Science Journalism, Soapbox, The Interweb | Tagged: Araneae, Blog, Fossils, Journalism, Science, The Internet | 1 Comment »
Posted on December 22, 2008 by Cheshire
One of the coolest adaptions insects use to survive is when they try to look like something else in order to fool predators into not eating them. Normally, they look like something which tastes bad or a group of harmful species mimic each other to spread that blanket of protection. Occasionally, though, some take a [...]
Filed under: Arachnology, General Entomology, entomology | Tagged: Araneae, Behavioral Ecology, Butterflies/moths, Ecology, Jumping Spiders, Lepidoptera, Mimicry, Salticids, Spiders | Leave a Comment »
Posted on December 15, 2008 by Cheshire
Okay…totally breaking my moratorium on science posts for this. It’s a picture show which shows many animals discovered in a remote region of Laos, Vietnam, China…a region in there somewhere.
There are some really cool species here…and it just goes to show that we still have a lot more to discover. You can see a slideshow [...]
Filed under: Arachnology, Pet Trade, Science | Tagged: Arachnoculture, Arachnology, Araneae, Conservation, Ecology, Insect Photography, New Species, Spiders, Tarantulas, Theraphosidae | Leave a Comment »
