spiders | Gunsmoke and Knitting

Posts Tagged ‘spiders’

Why am I crabby?

July 27, 2016

spider-1024x683

“… a new study from researchers at the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill has discovered a connection between spider personalities and temperature changes, potentially bringing us closer to answering these questions.”

It seems that even within the same species of spider – some individuals have a difficult time thriving in higher temperatures, while others have difficulty with lower temperatures.

Apparently my spider genes come from the heat insensitive spiders because I, too, am crabbier with higher temperatures, such as the one I recorded on my phone as I left my office at Fancy Pants University last Friday.

I cannot vouch for the accuracy of this reading – but it was hot.

More about this story at ZME Science.

spider photo credit: Alex Wild

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged animals, geeky science blogging, heat, nature, spiders | Leave a Comment »

What am I sappy spider blogging?

August 14, 2015

This little spider puts his heart into his dancing – all for the benefit of the little brown female seen at the end of the video. The colorful fellow is M. personatus, or Blueface peacock spider. Jurgen Otto is a spider and mite biologist from Australia who is interested in creatures such as the peacock spider, from a scientific perspective as well as for its entertaining dancing.

John Travolta, eat your heart out. “Unh, unh, unh, unh . . . ”

What am I sappy spider blogging?

October 24, 2014

“When I turned on the light, I couldn’t quite understand what I was seeing,” Piotr Naskrecki said about his encounter with the Goliath Birdeater Spider in the rainforest of Guyana.

Okay, this is not sappy spider blogging – this is Creepy, Enormous, NIGHTMARE spider blogging. This specimen has a leg span of up to a foot, 2 inch long fangs and a fist-sized body. The Goliath also has hardened feet that make it sound like horses hooves when it walks.

It gets better:

When Naskrecki approached the imposing creature in the rainforest, it would rub its hind legs against its abdomen. At first, the scientist thought the behavior was “cute,” he said, but then he realized the spider was sending out a cloud of hairs with microscopic barbs on them. When these hairs get in the eyes or other mucous membranes, they are “extremely painful and itchy,” and can stay there for days, he said.

I’m never going there, nope, never.