Source: National Geographic

Wildlife biologist Phil Torres recently discovered a new species of spider in the Amazon that would take first prize at any costume party. This tiny five-millimeter-long spider builds a decoy spider around five times its size to scare off potential predators.

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Cairns man Ant Hadleigh snapped photos of a golden orb spider attempting to eat a brown tree snake in a Freshwater backyard, April 2012. He estimated the tree snake to be around half a metre long and the spider about the size of a hand ( Read more... )

Fungal infection causes tarantula to grow antlers | io9 -- [This image may look like something dreamed up for a surreal horror movie, but it's a real horror for the tarantula in question. This unfortunate arachnid is infected with Cordyceps, a parasitic fungus that replaces its host's tissue with its own.]


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Humans aren't the only ones trying to flee the floods in Wagga Wagga (NSW, Australia).

Thousands of spiders have crawled into farm fields in the city's northern outskirts to escape the swollen Murrumbidgee River.

Spiders spin wet blanket over Wagga Wagga

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Whole New Meaning for Thinking On Your Feet: Brains of Small Spiders Overflow Into LegsAs part of ongoing research to understand how miniaturization affects brain size and behavior, researchers measured the central nervous systems of nine species of spiders, from rainforest giants to spiders smaller than the head of a pin. As the spiders get ( Read more... )

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To bring us further away from the current flood of mass bird kill reports, some spider porn

via Skepchick , Susan Mulius' report on Johnathan Pruitt's research into sex play among teenaged Anelosimus studiosus

When pairs of young comb-footed spiders engage in an arachnid version of heavy petting, the males gain experience that appears to pay off ( Read more... )

You happen to see this:


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