Arachnids!

The female black widow.

The annual meeting of the American Arachnological Society was held in Portland this year!  Lucky us!  They held a Fun With Arachnids evening at Lewis and Clark College, which  proved to be even cooler than we expected.  One of the first things we saw was a demonstration of how scorpions  glow under a blacklight (theirs was vivid blue with bright green spots).   Aside from when scorpions head to the disco, it's not very useful to them, but it does really help humans to find these nocturnal creatures at night.

Jasper had a blast! He admired spider specimens both living and preserved.  He peered at them through microscopes.  He watched a spider eating a cricket.  He was completely captivated by a big bin of mulch that kids could dig through to look for tiny creepy crawlies.  Jasper is always looking for creepy crawlies, and was thrilled to have scientists on hand to identify each of his discoveries.  He also met a scientist who has discovered a new species of millipede, right here in the Pacific Northwest!  (This gentleman wanted to get the word out to everybody that there are still wonders to be discovered right here where we live!)

Then we headed to the presentations.  Apparently the guidelines were that the speakers had 10 minutes or so to share something really cool. My favorite was Prof. Richard Bradley, from Ohio State University, who gave us the good news that he's working with illustrator Steve Buchanan on an all-new book to update Spiders and Their Kin (Golden Guide) a truly wonderful little identification guide.  This book is loved by amateurs and professional naturalists alike, because it packs a ton of information and lavish illustrations into a 4"x 6" size, and it's only $6.95.  The last revision was published in 2002, and Prof. Bradley estimates his new edition will be published in 2013.


An Australian scientist said that an accidental discovery has lead to a new technique for conducting spider surveys, with spectacular results.  A farmer apparently took a notion to stop his tractor, leaving it running, to go take a look and see what kinds of spiders he could find on his land.  He didn't find too many until he gave up and went back to his tractor.  There he found hundreds of spiders gathered on the wheels, joined by some lizards who were gorging themselves on the spiders!  Apparently rumbly old diesel vehicles are great for producing strong ground vibrations, which attracts spiders by the score.  The farmer shared this discovery, and now it's fast becoming a popular spider survey technique.  Another scientist showed some videos taken of solfugids (wind scorpions) digging.  She kept making remarks about dead solfugids, which the audience seemed to find absolutely hilarious.  It turns out they are notoriously hard to keep alive for study in captivity.  So if you ever plan to do stand up comedy to an audience of arachnologists, be sure to make jokes about dead solfugids!  A scientist showed us side by side comparisons of jumping spiders that have evolved to look nearly exactly like the ants that live near them, many of which are vividly colored.  Looking like ants means many predators will believe they are too yucky to eat.  But the spiders themselves like to eat these ants, and their mimicry helps the spiders to get in close.  A scientist shared his amazing close up photos of an ichneumonid wasp larva growing from egg to adult wasp.  The female wasp lays its eggs directly on the bodies of spiders.  When its eggs hatch, the larvae slowly eat the spider, then pupate in the middle of the spider's web.    And Greta Binford of Lewis and Clark College tipped us off that she and her students have created a cool website with wonderful closeup pictures of spiders found on their campus. She said she normally doesn't teach classes to students who are not majoring in her field, and was pleased with their enthusiasm for this project. Also she was recently profiled in a new book for children,  Silk and Venom: Searching for a Dangerous Spider.  So far, Jasper would like nothing better than to be a naturalist, so I like nothing better than giving him chances to meet them.