Spider in Biological News

Bolivian rainforest study suggests feeding behavior in monkeys and humans have ancient, shared roots

... working in Bolivia have found that wild spider monkeys control their diets in a similar way to ... Santa Cruz) familiarising the Peruvian spider monkeys ( Ateles chamek ) to her presence and ... found that the pattern of nutrient intake by wild spider monkeys, which are primarily fruit eaters, was ...

An end to fear

... spiders to the human volunteers. One of the spider images was accompanied by a pain stimulus and the ... a startle response (fear) upon seeing the first spider without the pain stimulus being administered. The anxiety for this spider had therefore been acquired. One day later ...

Moving in for the winter toxic brown recluse spiders pose danger

... their name, the brown recluse is a shy, reclusive spider looking for a warm home. Drawn to clutter, ... on a jacket or clothing that has a brown recluse spider inside," Houseman said. "If the spider feels trapped against a person's skin, it will ...

The physics of star-forming clouds and the urban environment

... . spider THREAD "We present the results of a combined theoretical and experimental investigation of spider capture thread. While the radial threads in a spider web are simply cylindrical, the circumferential ...

Protein's strength lies in h-bond cooperation

... that the strength of a biological material like spider silk lies in the specific geometric configuration ... even though the glue of hydrogen bonds that hold spider silk together at the molecular level is 100 to ... help engineers create new materials that mimic spider silks lightweight robustness. It could also ...

Madagascar's tortoises are crawling toward extinction, groups say

... the radiated tortoise, flat-tailed tortoise, spider tortoise and Madagascar big-headed turtle, all of ... of critically endangered species. Ploughshare, spider and flat-tailed tortoises, along with juvenile ... amazing biodiversity including radiated and spider tortoises. The exhibit will also be a ...

Scientist brings 50 million year old spider 'back to life'

... A 50-million-year-old fossilised spider has been brought back to life in stunning 3D by a ... amber tens of millions of years ago. The male spider studied in his latest paper is a new species ... spiders. Earlier this year, a species of spider which dates back more than 20 million years was ...

UC Riverside biologist receives prestigious MacArthur Fellowship

... and a national expert of the genetic structure of spider silk, has won a $500,000 MacArthur Fellowship, ... Her trailblazing work on the genetics of spider silk is a wonderful example of the tremendous ... Scientists have long been fascinated with spider silks used by spiders to move, trap and store ...

New species of spiders discovered by UBC scientist in Papua New Guinea

... the neurological systems of the spider's insect prey, and each species of spider gives us another opportunity to find medically useful chemicals," says ... addition to filling in the gaps in our planet's natural history, exploring spider biodiversity and evolution could potentially inform fields as diverse as ...

Spiders who eat together, stay together: UBC research

... number of spiders contained in the nests; so number of incoming prey per spider declines with colony size. But Anelosimus eximius, a species of social spider notable for its enormous colony size some total more than 20,000 ...

Protein fibrils as alternative plastics?

... proteins. Amyloids can display amazing mechanical properties similar to spider silk. spider silk is, by weight, significantly stronger than steel and can be stretched ...

Plant reflections may be key to early detection of treatment needs

... the key parameter to control is early detection. When scouting for spider mite infestation, you have to take a lot of samples to see mites when the ... of zebra chip in potatoes and cotton root rot, and also looking at spider mite stress on corn plants, Nansen said. Were developing technology that ...

Natural seed treatment could drastically cut pesticide use

... Early trials at Lancaster University saw promising results when researchers treated the seeds of tomato plants, sweet pepper and maize. Red spider mite attack on tomato plants was down by 80 per cent, aphid attack on sweet peppers cut by 70 per cent and caterpillar damage to maize was reduced by ...

Scientists examine perceptions of risk and the spread of disease

... and the risk." Most current attempts to model the risks of emerging infectious diseases look at the disease itself and human behavior. The spider Working Group aims to build on that classic view by also considering the economic impact of human decisions about risk. "Epidemiological science ...

Scientists examine human behavior and the threat of disease

... and the risk." Most current attempts to model the risks of emerging infectious diseases look at the disease itself and human behavior. The spider Working Group aims to build on that classic view by also considering the economic impact of human decisions about risk. "Epidemiological science ...

April 2009 Geology and GSA Today media highlights

... land, sirenians (manatees) in the Tethys-Mediterranean, the last refuge of the woolly mammoth, and Edwards Aquifer development as seen through cave spider DNA. Other topics include glaciation, mineralization, mineral decomposition, degassing, climate change, tectonics, volcanics, current velocity and ...

10 new amphibian species discovered in Colombia

... such as Baird's tapir ( Tapirus bairdii ), listed on the IUCN Red List as Endangered in Colombia, and four species of monkeys, including Geoffroy's spider monkey ( Ateles geoffroyi ), Geoffroy's tamarin or red crested bare-faced tamarin ( Saguinus geoffroyi ), white-throated capuchin or Gorgona ...

In spiders, size matters: Small males are more often meals

... while small males were consumed 80% of the time. This result was also confirmed when Wilder and Rypstra examined published data from a wide range of spider species. Males are more likely to be eaten in species where males are small relative to females. Much research on sexual cannibalism has focused ...

Brown tree snake could mean Guam will lose more than its birds

... turn up other indirect impacts the brown tree snake has had on Guam. For example, she notes anecdotal evidence that there is a substantially higher spider population on Guam than on other nearby islands, and she speculates that could largely be because the native bird population has been decimated. ...

Rutgers biologist to study worms in Amazon, glaciers

... with other worm cocoons. "I'm hoping to gain insight into the cocoon secretion mechanism (comparable in complexity, perhaps, to spinning a spider web), and to our collective data on the biomaterial aspects of different parts of worm cocoons, mainly as flexible, resilient membranes and ...

Wasps and bumble bees heat up, fly faster with protein-rich food

... animal carcasses, other insects," said UCSD doctoral student Megan Eckles. Their appetite for protein and efficient foraging are harming Hawaiian spider and insect populations. Eckles and biology graduate student Erin Wilson traveled to Hawaii to see if behavioral heating increased the wasps' ...

Nanotubes could help study retrovirus transmission between human cells

... created by macrophages part of the police force of the body grown in culture, says George. The tubes in appearance and function resemble a kind of spider web, capturing bacterium and transporting them to the macrophages, which eat them. ...

The 12th International Behavioral Ecology Congress held at Cornell University, Aug. 10-14

... selection and mating systems; the behavioral ecology of fertility decline in humans; kinship, cooperation and population structure in social birds; spider sociality; and the amazing sensory ecology of moles and shrews. ...

New catfish species named for museum mail supervisor

... of Copeia. New species often are named for prominent scientists, generous benefactors or even spouses. A biologist recently named a new trapdoor spider after popular singer-songwriter Neil Young. A few years ago an entomologist named a new slime-mold beetle after the president. Rarely, if ever, has ...

Pioneering landscape-scale research releases first findings

... a genus and species of a previously unknown ground-dwelling spider. Their research indicated old-growth characteristics intensified fire effects on spider populations because of increased forest debris. Wildlife findings included a general lack of response from birds to thinning and controlled burns ...

Improved foam for varicose veins found to be safe in preliminary results from phase II trial

... irritant that causes damage to the vein wall and subsequent scarring, with room air. Sclerosant foams have been a standard treatment since 1997 for spider veins and small varicose veins. Varisolve, a foam made with carbon dioxide, is relatively painless compared to other sclerosants, which can cause ...

US-French research team to barcode an entire ecosystem

... of leaving no stone unturned, larvae and contents of animals' guts will be fair game in the full project. "We'll check the gut contents of a gecko, spider or fish to find out what it's eating," said Chris Meyer, who managed the pilot project while he was a researcher at UC Berkeley. "This information ...

New, rare and threatened species discovered in Ghana

... (Bycanistes cylindricus) and the Nimba flycatcher (Melaenornis annamarulae)(first time recorded in Ghana); and nine species new to science: a spider tick whose lineage is as old as the dinosaurs and eight species of katydids. (See a more detailed list of findings at the end of this release.) ...

Story ideas from the Journal of Biological Chemistry

... AUTHOR: Terry Combs, Department of Nutrition, University of North Carolina; 919-966-7235, terrycombs@unc.edu Unraveling the Silky spider Web Web-making spiders employ a host of silk glands to synthesize a variety of silk filaments with different mechanical properties. Although it ...

Entomological Society announces 2007 award winners

... different management practices on the re-invasion and expansion of the red imported fire ant (Solenopsis invicta Buren) in Texas. He has also studied spider assemblages in pecans (187 species in current database) to understand the role spiders may play in structuring pest/predator populations. These ...

Speed plays crucial role in breaking protein's H-bonds

... and stabilityand amyloidal fibrilsbeta-folded proteins. These protein motifs form the basis of many natural materials, such as hair, hoof, wool, spider silk, and the prions that build up in the brains of Alzheimers patients. Hydrogen bonds are the basic chemical bonds that hold together proteins, ...

LSU professor studies army-ant-following birds

... flocks of birds track army-ant swarms through the forest. When millions of these army ants are on the move, they consume every insect, spider and lizard they come across, said Brumfield. Naturally, any animal that hears them coming and theyre very, very loud runs the other way. The ...

The best both of worlds -- how to have sex and survive

... Researchers have discovered that even the gruesome and brutal lifestyle of the Evarcha culicivora, a blood gorging jumping spider indigenous to East Africa, cant help but be tempted by that big is beautiful mantra no matter what the costs. A study recently published in Ethology ...

Fascinating spider silk

... Stronger than steel and more elastic than rubber: spider silk is unsurpassed in its expandability, resistance to tearing, and toughness. spider silk would be an ideal material for a large ... process. Fundamentally, the spinning of spider silk represents a phase change from a solution ...

Tarantula venom and chili peppers target same pain sensor

... The researchers examined venoms from 22 spider and scorpion species whose bites are known to ... pain. They also showed that venom from a second spider activated TRPV1, but they did not pinpoint which ... were responsible. The fact that a second spider venom triggered a capsaicin receptor suggests ...

Ground spider diversity studied in research project

... a master's degree, has been studying ground spider diversity, distribution and abundance in the ... spiders." For people who think the only good spider is a dead spider, Henderson has this to say: A diverse spider population signifies a healthy habitat. ...

Tarantulas produce silk from their feet

... change in our evolutionary hypothesis regarding spider silk," Summers said. "It could mean that silk ... However, the scientists noticed that when the spider started to slip down the surface, it produced ... legs that resemble the silk-producing spigots on spider abdominal spinnerets. The next step, ...

MIT engineers probe spiders' polymer art

... identified two key physical processes that lend spider silk its unrivaled strength and durability, ... the long-sought goal of spinning artificial spider silk. Manufactured spider silk could be used for artificial tendons and ...

Study shows pine bark naturally decreases severe chronic venous insufficiency

... prevent travel-related DVT. Like varicose veins, spider veins also develop if edema is left untreated. ... with Pycnogenol® prevents the development of spider veins. Pycnogenol® also helps prevent existing spider veins from getting larger and more prominent. ...