1. seed
  2. The Buzz: Arachnophobes Read No Further

The Buzz: Arachnophobes Read No Further

By ejohnson on October 29, 2009.
i-44e89d91f13d604a58f17c23058f68a8-Nephila.jpg

In honor of Halloween this week, ScienceBloggers are offering some creepy crawlies to intrigue and frighten you. Ed Yong of Not Exactly Rocket Science began spinning the spider web with his fascinating coverage of the Bagheera kiplingi, a "mostly vegetarian" jumping spider found throughout Latin America. Days later, he reported on the recently discovered Nephila kowaci, the world's largest known web-spinning spider, along with a photo of the South African spider at work. And Tuesday, Ed wrote about Evarcha culicivora, an East African species of spider that feasts on mammalian blood--albeit indirectly--by preying on blood-engorged female mosquitoes. Ed reports that University of Canterbury researchers have found "the blood isn't just a meal for the spiders, it's an aphrodisiac too."

Tags
biology

More like this

Drinking blood makes vampire spider sexier
In East Africa lives a species of spider that drinks mammalian blood. But fear not - Evarcha culicivora is an indirect vampire - it sates its thirst by preying on female mosquitoes that have previously fed on blood themselves. Even though its habitat is full of non-biting midges called "lake…
World's largest web-spinning spider discovered in South Africa
In the forests of South Africa lurks an arachnophobe's nightmare - Nephila kowaci, the largest web-spinning spider in the world. The females of this newly discovered species have bodies that are 3-4 centimetres in length (1.5 inches) and legs that are each around 7.5cm long (3 inches). This new…
Bagheera kiplingi - the mostly vegetarian spider
In Latin America, there lives a unique spider called Bagheera kiplingi. It's a jumping spider and it shares the group's large, acute eyes and prodigious leaping ability. But it also has a trait that singles it out among all 40,000 species of spider - it's mostly vegetarian. Virtually all spiders…
Friday Fractal VIII
While crawling across the web this week, these stories of spiders just seemed to stick. So, when it came to making today's fractal, I knew exactly where to turn. The shape seen at right is an example of a "loom" style fractal, originally described by Cliff Pickover in his book, the Keys to Infinity…