Spider in Biological News

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 scientist at The University of Manchester. In a paper published in the latest issue of the Zootaxa journal, Dr David Penney and co-authors from Ghent University in Belgium report on the use of a technique ...

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 variety of medical and technical applications, and researchers are thus interested in learning the spiders' sec...

Ground spider diversity studied in research project

None of Takesha Henderson's discoveries are named Charlotte, but they are weaving a new chapter in Texas entomology. Her graduate studies at Texas A&M University have led to the discovery of 25 new spiders in Brazos County and one species found for the first time in Texas. In research sponsor...

Evolution mystery: Spider venom and bacteria share same toxin

It's a case of evolutionary detective work. Biology researchers at Lewis & Clark College and the University of Arizona have found evidence for an ancient transfer of a toxin between ancestors of two very dissimilar organisms--spiders and a bacterium. But the mystery remains as how the toxin pas...

Biologists Crack Genetic Code for Specialized Spider Silk

Defects in a single gene can result in two immune system disorders that leave affected individuals vulnerable to frequent or unusually severe infections, according to new findings reported in the August issue of Nature Genetics. The discovery may lead to new diagnostic tests for these two inherited...

Natural seed treatment could drastically cut pesticide use

...sponses. 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

...athogen, 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 ha...

Scientists examine human behavior and the threat of disease

...athogen, 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 ha...

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

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

April 2009 Geology and GSA Today media highlights

...on 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 sea...

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

...t the neurological systems of the spider's insect prey, and each species of spider gives us another opportunity to find medically useful chemicals," says Madd... addition to filling in the gaps in our planet's natural history, exploring spider biodiversity and evolution could potentially inform fields as diverse as me...

An end to fear

...ferent spiders to the human volunteers. One of the spider images was accompanied by a pain stimulus and the ...ed 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 the...

10 new amphibian species discovered in Colombia

...ls 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 white-fro...

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, closets...s 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 bit...

The physics of star-forming clouds and the urban environment

...meetings.aps.org/Meeting/DFD08/Event/89557 . 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 th...

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

...d 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 on...

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

...ld 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. B...

Spiders who eat together, stay together: UBC research

...he 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 individua...

Rutgers biologist to study worms in Amazon, glaciers

...compared 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 bio-adhesi...

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

...ind: 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' predat...

Nanotubes could help study retrovirus transmission between human cells

...e 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

...al 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

...ue 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 a...

Protein fibrils as alternative plastics?

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

Pioneering landscape-scale research releases first findings

...ed 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 w...

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

...an 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 burn...

Protein's strength lies in h-bond cooperation

...al 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 1,0...uld help engineers create new materials that mimic spider silks lightweight robustness. It could also impact...

Madagascar's tortoises are crawling toward extinction, groups say

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

Plant reflections may be key to early detection of treatment needs

...mage, 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 i...etection 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 we...

US-French research team to barcode an entire ecosystem

...it 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 wil...

New, rare and threatened species discovered in Ghana

...hornbill (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.) R...

Story ideas from the Journal of Biological Chemistry

...DING 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 is...

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 biolog...

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

...ling 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, si...

LSU professor studies army-ant-following birds

...specialization, 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 army-an...

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, one...Hayashi. Her trailblazing work on the genetics of spider silk is a wonderful example of the tremendous valu...ions. Scientists have long been fascinated with spider silks used by spiders to move, trap and store foo...

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 f...

A rarity among arachnids, whip spiders have a sociable family life

...r their own group or an unfamiliar group, they reacted more aggressively toward the new group than their own. Rayor suspects that benefits of whip spider social behavior include enhanced safety from predators. Although there are few reports of other creatures eating them, a mother nearby may offer young...

New study may show how to forestall a fatal, virus-caused immune-system meltdown

...ind that things suddenly begin to make sense,?said UTMB professor Norbert Herzog, one of the paper’s senior authors. “Cell signaling networks are like spider webs—pulling on one strand causes all the strands to move, and the Ingenuity system helped us see and comprehend connections we would have missed othe...

Tarantula venom and chili peppers target same pain sensor

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