Arachnid
10 arachnid organisms and their business parallels
Decorated Orb Weaver
Decorated orb weavers add conspicuous silk structures called stabilimenta to their webs - zigzag patterns, spiral decorations, or cruciform shapes tha...
Diving Bell Spider
Diving bell spiders are the only spiders living entirely underwater, breathing from air bubbles they maintain in silk 'bells.' They're also the fastes...
Flower Crab Spider
Flower crab spiders are the color-matching equivalents of orchid mantises. They wait on flowers, change color to match their substrate (white on white...
Horseshoe Crab
Horseshoe crabs aren't crabs at all - they're more closely related to spiders and scorpions. More remarkably, they've remained essentially unchanged f...
Jumping Spider
Male jumping spiders perform elaborate courtship dances: leg waving, body bobbing, and rapid lateral movement. The dance's tempo, coordination, and vi...
Peacock Spider
Peacock spiders demonstrate multi-modal signaling by combining visual displays (colored abdominal plates) with substrate-borne vibrations transmitted...
Portia Spider
Portia spiders challenge assumptions about invertebrate intelligence. They hunt other spiders, including web-builders larger than themselves, using ta...
Spiders
Among the very first animals to arrive at the Mount St. Helens blast zone within days of the eruption. Wind-blown spiders arrived and began spinning w...
Trapdoor Spider
Trapdoor spiders have invested in architecture. They excavate burrows lined with silk, topped with hinged doors camouflaged with soil and debris. Trip...
Wolf Spider
Female wolf spiders assess male quality by evaluating both visual rhythmic leg-waving and synchronized vibrational signals. Males that coordinate both...