The Spider Encyclopedia

AWW! Real Spiders… in Wisconsin

admin — Sat, 07 Jul 2012 21:43:24 +0000

I once had a biology teacher who said that everything worth studying needs a geek. He said, while they may be weird, snail geeks are the reason we know anything about snails. Snake geeks are probably the reason we have anti-venom. Neil Borlog, a wheat geek, won a Nobel prize as a result of his genetic work on wheat. Well, let me introduce you to Mike Draney, PhD at the University of Green Bay and member of the American Arachnological Society. He is, in the most hilarious way a spider geek. While this isn’t just about spiders, Draney does talk a little bit about all the Wisconsin Spiders he’s found around. He introduces us to a little Fishing spider he has laying around the lab and a cellar spider that he found in his house just that morning. Disgusting.

Mocking Bird Call

admin — Mon, 25 Jun 2012 20:48:03 +0000

Ok, I’m betraying the spider-based subject matter of this blog. But I had to. The other day, a mocking bird decided to post itself outside my bedroom window. I’d never seen one before, and I find it fascinating. The recording is about 4 minutes long. It is uncut. This bird just went one call after the other. The thing is, I didn’t start recording at the beginning of his song and I didn’t end it at the end (my iphone ran out of memory). These four minutes represented only a small number of the many different calls the bird was making.

Spiders of North America Slideshow

admin — Sun, 10 Jun 2012 17:25:08 +0000

Hobo Spider

admin — Sun, 10 Jun 2012 05:37:28 +0000

Camel Spider

admin — Sun, 10 Jun 2012 03:42:14 +0000

Tarantism

admin — Sat, 09 Jun 2012 15:46:37 +0000

Is a tarantula a spider?

admin — Sat, 09 Jun 2012 10:41:20 +0000

You might think that a tarantula is a spider since it looks so darn much like a spider.

But the answer is really really complex.

The first time that the word tarantula was used to describe a spider, it was used to describe the specie Lycosa tarantula, the tarantula wolf spider. This spider is found in Southern Europe, and most commonly associated with Italy around the city of Taranto.

I know! Suddenly the name makes sense right?

This spider was a thing of lore even being accused of spreading a disease that became known as tarantism. Now that’s interesting, but not very relevant to your question.

The thing is, the word Tarantula has evolved. It no longer refers to one specific spider in Italy. In North America the term is used to refer to more than 900 spiders around the world. And yes! They are spiders. They are in the order Araneae which is the order that all spiders are in. So the answer is probably what you expect, but did you know that the tarantula is not one kind of spider?

It’s not very exacting to use a word that describes more than 900 different animals… but language is hard. So, I guess I’ll just kind of get over it. In the meantime, why not go take a look at some of our most interesting spider pictures and articles.

House Spider

admin — Sat, 09 Jun 2012 10:30:12 +0000

Tarantula Spider

admin — Sat, 09 Jun 2012 10:27:54 +0000

Fishing Spider

admin — Sat, 09 Jun 2012 10:27:51 +0000