A Break From The Alex Smith Drama: Urbanization Is Supersizing Spiders

[listopencil]

City living brings with it a few shifts in lifestyle compared to rural habitation: shorter commutes, accessible shops and, often, an over-reliance on restaurant dining and fast food. Another side effect of the congested, cramped, cement-laded city life is that the temperature tends to be a little warmer year-round, a shift known as the “urban heat island” effect.

As it turns out, these changes aren’t only affecting cities’ human populations. In Australia, where spiders already have a propensity to be terrifyingly large, new research by University of Sydney PhD candidate Lizzy Lowe, says The Age, found that Sydney’s higher temperatures and easier access to food are driving the spiders to grow even bigger.

She studied the golden orb weaver in three types of environments in and around Sydney – urban parks, remnant bushland and continuous bushland. Twenty sites were studied and, for each spider web found, she assessed its proximity to man-made objects and vegetation.

Comparing the sizes of the spiders, she found that the city spiders outpaced the country spiders. And, though her research focused only on Golden orb weaver spiders, she suggests that the same effect can probably be seen in other species.

A female golden orb weaver spider. Photo: Arthur Chapman


http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/smar...izing-spiders/

[Mr. Laz]

Hate spiders


Spiders and sharks creep me the **** out, since i live in Kansas i don't have to worry about sharks except on vacation.

[listopencil]

OK, now this is freaking me the **** out. I'm going to stop looking at spider shit on the Smithsonian website for a bit:

Spider Builds Fake Spider Decoy

Deep in the Peruvian Amazon, a spider is at work building an elaborate, fake decoy of itself. In its web, it busily goes to working crafting its doppelgänger out of leaves, debris and dead prey insects, including multiple spidery legs, a head and abdomen, Wired reports.

The new spider, thought to be a member of the genus Cyclosa, might build these decoys as part of a defense mechanism to confuse or distract predators. Spiders already make impressive geometric webs, scientists reason, so building other designs isn’t such a leap.

Researchers exploring a floodplain in the forest first learned of the spider when the spotted what they thought was a dead spider caught in a web. It looked flaky, writes Wired, like a fungus-covered arthropod corpse. But the would-be corpse began twitching, and then the researchers noticed a second, smaller spider about an inch above the decoy, shaking her web. The researchers said it “blew their minds.”

Arachnologists soon confirmed that the finding was unique, though more field observations will be needed before the specimen can be confirmed as a new species to science. Other members of Cyclosa are known for building decoys, but those already known to science tend to be clumpy and not nearly as anatomically precise as these examples.

So far, the research team has found around 25 of the clever little spiders. They have no idea if the species is locally restricted or found for miles within the forest. For now, however, the spider mission is on hold. The researchers lack the necessary permits to collect more animals, so until that paperwork comes through in January, arachnologists will be holding their breath.

[Frazod]

Originally Posted by Mr. Laz

Hate spiders


Spiders and sharks creep me the **** out, since i like in Kansas i don't have to worry about sharks except on vacation.

**** SHARKS TOO

DAMN YOU SPIELBERG

[KCrockaholic]

Whyyyy do we need to talk about spiders? Seriously. Spring is just around the corner, which means it'll be spider haven soon. I'm already terrified.

My biggest fear in life is seriously spiders. Doesn't even matter how small it is.

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by listopencil

OK, now this is freaking me the **** out. I'm going to stop looking at spider shit on the Smithsonian website for a bit:

Spider Builds Fake Spider Decoy

Deep in the Peruvian Amazon, a spider is at work building an elaborate, fake decoy of itself. In its web, it busily goes to working crafting its doppelgänger out of leaves, debris and dead prey insects, including multiple spidery legs, a head and abdomen, Wired reports.

The new spider, thought to be a member of the genus Cyclosa, might build these decoys as part of a defense mechanism to confuse or distract predators. Spiders already make impressive geometric webs, scientists reason, so building other designs isn’t such a leap.

Researchers exploring a floodplain in the forest first learned of the spider when the spotted what they thought was a dead spider caught in a web. It looked flaky, writes Wired, like a fungus-covered arthropod corpse. But the would-be corpse began twitching, and then the researchers noticed a second, smaller spider about an inch above the decoy, shaking her web. The researchers said it “blew their minds.”

Arachnologists soon confirmed that the finding was unique, though more field observations will be needed before the specimen can be confirmed as a new species to science. Other members of Cyclosa are known for building decoys, but those already known to science tend to be clumpy and not nearly as anatomically precise as these examples.

So far, the research team has found around 25 of the clever little spiders. They have no idea if the species is locally restricted or found for miles within the forest. For now, however, the spider mission is on hold. The researchers lack the necessary permits to collect more animals, so until that paperwork comes through in January, arachnologists will be holding their breath.

It's just a matter of time before they start building decoy supermodels, and then they'll supplant us as the earth's dominant species.

[listopencil]

Originally Posted by KCrockaholic

Whyyyy do we need to talk about spiders? Seriously. Spring is just around the corner, which means it'll be spider haven soon. I'm already terrified.

My biggest fear in life is seriously spiders. Doesn't even matter how small it is.

Oh, yeah. It's definitely spider time.

[Mr. Laz]

the way the look
the way the move
the shooting thread out their ass
the creepy ass pinchers in the front that bite
the way their web gets all stuck on you if you move through it


*shiver*


nasty ass shit

[listopencil]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

It's just a matter of time before they start building decoy supermodels, and then they'll supplant us as the earth's dominant species.

The decoy in the picture has a pretty smile.

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by tooge

I like spiders as long as they
1. don't bite me
2. eat all the other little fugtard insects in and around the house
3. I don't see them

I've never bothered to pay for exterminators or anything and generally I don't mind spiders. However, I went to school with a girl that had a recluse bite on her wrist that scarred into a big medallion shaped scar where a watch would sit; kind odd looking.

I've also seen the necrosis on dogs from recluse bites. So a recluse scares the bejesus out of me, especially since they live in shoes and the bites rarely hurt until your flesh starts to rot.

So I pick up my golf shoes last summer and I see a couple of soft brown spiders no bigger than a penny. I get pretty close to take a look at them..."MOTHER OF GOD!"

Went and looked online again to be sure, yup, a pair of recluses living under my golf shoe.

I called the exterminator and told him to nuke the site from orbit. Fire, floods, whatever it took. He didn't really believe me, but when he was done he confirmed that he found a few in the garage.

Yeah, I'm an irrational pussy when it comes to that one single type of spider.

[suds79]

This thread gives me the heebie jeebies.

Creepy little buggers they are.

[Holladay]

Nice lil PSA on spiders. Quite educational.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=sHzdsFiBbFc

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by Mr. Laz

the way the look
the way the move
the shooting thread out their ass
the creepy ass pinchers in the front that bite
the way their web gets all stuck on you if you move through it


*shiver*


nasty ass shit

my best dance moves come when I accidentally walk through a spider web.

[Psyko Tek]

Originally Posted by listopencil

Here's a pic of the "Clock Spider" linked to the text "terrifyingly large" in the original article:

that, sir, is why we need assault rifles

CLOCK SPIDERS

[Archie F. Swin]

well....



they don't fly....

[Fish]

Brazilian news outlet G1 spoke with a local biologist who says the spider activity is actually quite normal. He identified the species as Anelosimus eximius, a "social spider" known for its massive colonies that create blankets of webs. The behavior might also seem familiar to people in Chicago, where each year the city experiences an influx of "flying spiders" – so many that earlier this year the Hilton's Magnificent Miles Suites hotel formally requested guests keep their windows shut to avoid the annual migration. This species, known as Larinioides sclopetarius, spin their silk into balloon-like formations and ride lakefront air currents to crevices in high rises downtown.