#Arachnews: Ximena Nelson, a specialist in spider behaviour (particularly jumping spiders), has a book out! _The Lives of Spiders: A Natural History of the World's Spiders_, from Princeton University Press: https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691255026/the-lives-of-spiders
Review in the New Yorker, if you can stand the overwhelmingly self-indulgent "oooh spiders are so icky and scary" tone: https://archive.ph/XqdhD
Interesting spider
Found this cute little dude under a log that was occupied by trap jaw ants. I'm always amazed at the life to be found under a log. It moved very strangely, but didn't seem to mind me getting close enough to snap a photo. It did not appreciate the flash at all though.
Got quite the shock just now when I saw my pet _Parasteatoda_ had made an egg sac!!
She has molted since I caught her, so it's not fertilized, she just made it on her own initiative. I didn't think she was full grown! I'm just very surprised. Uh…happy Valentine's Day?
#BREAKING: my pet _Larinioides_ orbweaver is almost certainly a juvenile male! The palps are way too bulbous for a female's, I think.
Anyway, here e is chowing down on eir fruit flies.
From 31 Jan: ’Zombie’ spiders infected by never-before-seen fungus discovered on grounds of destroyed Irish castle - Scientists have discovered a never-before-seen mind-controlling fungus that creates spider “zombies“... https://www.livescience.com/animals/spiders/zombie-spiders-infected-by-never-before-seen-fungus-discovered-on-grounds-of-destroyed-irish-castle #animals #arachnids #spiders
Newly discovered fungal species makes zombies of cave spiders on island of Ireland https://phys.org/news/2025-01-newly-fungal-species-zombies-cave.html paper: https://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/wfbi/fuse/pre-prints/content-f1_fuse_vol15_art7
"all the infected #spiders were positioned on the roof or walls of the #caves. These normally reclusive spiders left their lairs or webs and migrated to die in exposed situations, essentially, mirroring the behavior of ants infected by #fungi of the genus Ophiocordyceps previously reported from the Atlantic rainforest of Brazil."
Detailed photo of a female spider cleaning one of her legs
a new episode of strange animals podcast, by @KateShaw is out, and it's about the fire ant and the goliath bird-eater spider, two cool arthropods ... although the fire ant is invasive and a huge problem in many places. : )
https://strangeanimalspodcast.blubrry.net/2025/01/20/episode-416-the-heaviest-tarantula-and-the-bitey-est-ant/ [strangeanimalspodcast.blubrry.net]