Scientists have discovered a new species of sheet-weaving spider, and it only dwells in one cave in southern Indiana. As its name suggests, this spider spins flat, tightly-woven, horizontal webs. There are thousands of species of sheet-weavers, and you’ve probably walked through one of their webs by accident some…
If you’re arachnophobic, I hate to tell you this, but spiders can fly.
Around 100 million years ago, a tick ran into some bad luck. It had the misfortune of wandering onto a spider’s web, causing the proprietor to spring into action and wrap the interloping bug in a tomb made of silk. The situation then took a turn for the worse when the tick came into contact with tree sap, enveloping…
Scientists at the University of Manchester in the UK trained a spider named Kim to jump for them, then recorded her leaps on high-speed cameras. But don’t worry, their research—published Tuesday in Scientific Reports—isn’t meant for anything nefarious. Nah, they just want to learn how to build a whole legion of…
Scientists in Israel have observed a strange behavior among brown widow spiders: When given the choice, the males of this species prefer to have sex with older females even though they’re less likely to bear offspring. More problematically, these older females are also more inclined to devour their partners after…
If the only thing more terrifying to you than a spider is a spider chasing you, you’re not going to want to watch this video of Festo’s latest creation. Using eight reconfigurable legs, the BionicWheelBot can creepily crawl along the ground, but then transform into a wheel and roll at an alarming speed. Someone find…
Environments make species. This was the fundamental biology lesson that was drilled into Charles Darwin when he visited the Galápagos Islands back in 1835, a trip that ultimately inspired his theory of natural selection. Nearly 200 years later, scientists in Hawaii have stumbled upon a fascinating evolutionary quirk…
Quick: what has eight legs and a face like a pair of hairy salad tongs? If you’re a spider, you know exactly what I’m describing—a beast, which, at least to smaller spiders, is an otherworldly, eldritch terror: the pelican spider. Now, new research published today in the journal ZooKeys details the discovery of a…
Spiders are typically thought of as solitary creatures that don’t partake in social pleasantries unless it has something to do with mating. But as new research shows, the African velvet spider is an exception to this rule. Mother spiders are assisted by closely-related virgin females who, in addition to engaging in…
Spiders in the family Migidae don’t get out much. Known as “tree trapdoor spiders,” they are unapologetic homebodies, spending nearly their entire lives chilling in a single burrow. Unlike their close, but much more famous relatives the tarantulas, tree trapdoor spiders are teeny, with most species small enough to fit…
If Marvel’s Spider-Man always seemed a little too far-fetched, you’re going to have an even harder time wrapping your head around the Darwin’s Bark spider. It’s no bigger than a thumbnail, but it can shoot a web at distances of over 80 feet, allowing it to cross rivers and spin massive traps.
Imagine this thing that has actually happened: Your infant has a strangely-shaped skin lesion. Seeing this disgusting skin lesion and thinking it might be anthrax, you take your child to the doctor. “Doc, I think I my kid has anthrax,” you might say. The doctor’s eyes roll. “It’s obviously a spider bite,” doc probably…
Say hello to Califorctenus cacachilensis, a new species of spider found in a remote mountain region of Baja California Sur. This elusive, softball-sized arachnid prefers the dark and cozy confines of caves, which seems entirely appropriate given its gruesome appearance. Also, we are never going into caves ever again.
When a suspicious looking box labeled “two pair shoes” arrived in Australia from Northern Europe recently, the Australian Border Force sent it through an x-ray. They didn’t find shoes, of course. Instead, the box contained a terrifying assortment of venomous snakes, spiders, and scorpions—as if the country needed more…
Funnel web spiders are a perplexing bunch. The eight-legged Australian creatures can kill with their venom, but are simultaneously required for creating the antidote. Now, it turns out their venom might have another purpose—protecting the brain from the damaging effects of a stroke.
Spiders are already horrifying, with their eight beady little eyes and spindly legs and sticky webs. They also probably eat more meat than your mind can wrap your head around—more meat than humans eat, even.
Today has been a stressful day in American science news. So, it seems like the perfect time to site back and relax with a nice, comforting story about an Australian Zoo asking people to catching deadly fucking venomous spiders for it.
Imagine the most elegant of dinner parties. The meal: a ground snake. Your guest: a tarantula. No silverware necessary, as your dining partner has brought its digestive juices with it.
In further proof that everything is stranger and more terrible in Australia, footage of an enormous banded huntsmen spider dragging a dead mouse up a fridge in Coppabella, Queensland, went viral on social media this weekend. Pizza rat has never felt so quaint.
