How to catch a Jumping spider!

Greetings fellow spider enthusiasts! Just a quick post for you today as I happened to stumble across a video that was entirely too good not to share. The video below is a primer on how to catch salticids in the wild.  The video features Dr. Wayne Maddison, one of the world's foremost experts on salticids. Please take a few minutes and watch this highly informative video, as I can virtually guarantee that you will learn something new, I know I did! Also, if you'd prefer to watch it in a new window, just click the link below the video.

Happy spider collecting!

How to collect Jumping Spiders (Salticidae)

Visiting blog post

Hi guys,

I know I've been super quite of late, and I apologize for that.  However, I do have a guest blog posting over at http://www.wildlensinc.org/blog/ that you should all totally check out!  The blog is run by a good group of conservationists and  I'm sure they would appreciate your taking the time to peruse their work.

Also just FYI, this blog will be quite for a little longer yet as I am finishing up my dissertation and it is eating all of my time currently. Expect a new post around the last week in August (my turn in date), if not sooner!

Happy spidering!

New year, New start!

The last few weeks have been rather slow in terms of posting.  Jon and I apologize for this unexpected silence on our end. November and December became inundated with unexpected events and experiments.  However, as the new year starts, new schedules are taking shape and many good things are on the way! 
     The good news for you dear readers is that this coming semester will feature at least one new blog post a week starting around the middle of January.  Why the sudden increase in posting?  Well, long story short, the book the we have been mentioning has been moved off of the back burner and will be getting large amounts of attention this semester.  This means that not only will new pictures be posted frequently, but also that previews of the book's contents will begin showing up on our blog!
     Jon and I are both very excited about these new developments and look forward to hearing what you, dear reader, think and things progress!

Happy New year!

I am Arachnophobic

    Hello, my name is Jon and I am arachnophobic. When I mention that I work with spiders and am arachnophobic many people question how it works. I myself sometimes question how I manage it and why my arachnophobia excludes Salticids. It wasn't always that way; any and all spiders got swift “justice” underneath my foot or beneath a rolled up magazine or newspaper.

 

My slow transformation from complete arachnophobia to working with spiders began sophomore year of college in an Introduction to Zoology class.

   Matt was looking for a student volunteer to help him with his research, somehow I volunteered. My first trip into the field with Matt was an icy shock into the world of spiders. Matt had set up a grid system of marking flags with small vials turned upside down taped to them. The idea is that Salticids, which don't build webs but instead make nests, would use the vials as substrate for their nests and we would come along and coax the spiders out of them. So around dusk, Matt and I arrived at our first set of traps. Matt calmly showed me what we were doing and then let me at it. I will admit, I was deathly frightened that the salticids would jump out and attack me as soon as I turned the flags upside down to tease them out, but I slowly realized that this was mental overreaction. After enduring two months of this “torture” I was finally coming to appreciate the creatures I was collecting.

   Once winter had set in, I was then tasked with identifying what we had collected. Little did I know how much identification I would be doing over the next three years! The dichotomous key was difficult to understand at first as most of the terms were completely new to me (have no fear, we'll make ours easy to understand as you'll see below). Much of my time was spent looking up what the labium was and if it was wider then the sternum or not or trying to keep the names and order of the eyes straight.

Lateral view of Salticid eye locations

   But slowly I became familiar with the key and soon was able to locate multiple morphological features that I would need during my initial inspection of the specimen. From that point on, I rapidly learned the frustrations of working with specimens that were tiny, some only a few millimeters. Trying to tease the chelicerae and fangs open to see if and how many retromarginal teeth were present, is the PME closer to the ALE or PLE, is patella-tibia 3 longer or shorter then patella-tibia 4, how many macrosetae are on tibia 1?

Found on an immature Marpissa.  PS: There are only supposed to be eight macrosetae! (Photo by Jonathan Knudsen)

It was during the first year of identifying that I discovered the two steps that I hated the most: Step 33 and Step 58. These are two steps that require the specimen to be sexually mature, and both involve the shapes and structures of the embolus and epigynum.

   As we begin work on the key for our guide, one of our main goals is to make it easy to understand and use. Instead of using technical jargon and details about each spider, we plan on using easier to see morphological traits and terms to key each species out. In a true dichotomous key, each species keys out in only one place. However, because we plan on taking a broader view of each species, multiple species may key out the same. This may seem like a problem, but we think it will be easier to say, “It may be Spider A (pg. XX), Spider B (pg. XX), or Spider C (pg. XX)” and then comparing our photos to their specimens to make the final species identification. Many of the specimens we've collected are fairly unique looking, so any confusion during the keying process can be sorted out using our photos.

   I have enjoyed being a contributor to this guide and now to this blog. I look forward to continuing our work on this project and keeping you updated as we progress. It has been a fun challenge so far and it will continue to be. Keep you AME's peeled for my next posting!

Salticids... in Space?!?

While that may sound like the title to yet another cheesy spider horror movie, it is in fact a real thing.  Thanks to NASA's "You Tube Space Lab" program, a very curious young man by the name of Amr Mohamed was given the opportunity to send Salticus scenicus into space.  The video to below was his entry into the contest and briefly outlines his experiment.

As you can see, he does pose quite an interesting problem.  While I have my own ideas on how they will adapt, I am curious about your thoughts, dear reader.  Do you think the spider will be able to hunt successfully in a Zero-G environment?  Why or why not?  I would absolutely love to hear your comments and thoughts in the comment box below.  Finally, if you want to find out what happens, a live stream of the experiment will be broadcast this Thursday September 12 at 0950 (ECT).

For a full write up on this project and the other winning entries, please go to http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/news/livestream.html

Teaching and Specimen Collecting

I apologize for the delay in posting.  The month long hiatus is due to poor internet availability, poor timing and a generally exhausted researcher.  For the last two and a half weeks, I have been in Ogallala, NE teaching a course on Field Animal Behavior.  Conveniently enough, the area I have been teaching in is also one that is rife with species of salticid that I have yet to find around Lincoln.  So far I have not been able to put too much effort into collecting.  However, in the brief time that I have spent collecting, I've managed to find at least seven species not found in my previous collection attempts.  Unfortunately, I have not had time to identify them to species yet, nor even to photograph the majority of them.  However, the picture below is a nice preview of some of the amazing new species that will now make an appearance in the book.

One of several iridescent salticids found while sweep netting.

I have one more week of teaching to go, and then the posts should resume their "normal" weekly schedule.  Also, be on the look out for more book photos in the near future!

Exciting things to come!

I am very pleased to announce that one of my collaborators and I have just recieved funding to make a small book on local jumping spiders!  The book (which will be published in pdf form on this blog for free) will feature full color close ups (macro photography), a dichotomous key to species and a few hands-on activities aimed at teaching kids about jumping spiders.  While we have only just started work on the project, we are hoping to have the bulk of the photos taken by the end of the summer and will definitely be posting some of our favorites as we progress.

If there is anything that you, my dear readers, would like to see in the book, please tell us in the comments!  We will make every effort to address all of your reasonable requests.  In the mean time, stay tuned for more Salticid-tastic updates and sneak previews of the book.

What can you learn from a spider?

That is the question isn't it?  Another way to phrase it might be, "Why bother studying spiders, especially those "icky" jumping ones?  Good question!  Read on for an answer.

Lots, tons even, of research has been done on spiders in general.  As with much of reality, the things we humans focus on are often those that catch our eye or make us afraid.  Jumping spiders, being the charismatic mini-fauna that they are, are no exception.  With that in mind it is no wonder that salticids have been studied so extensively.  What may not be readily obvious to most people though, is that the scientists often have other motivating factors as well.  For instance, as was discussed in the previous post, salticids are pretty dang odd for a spider and if there is one thing that scientists love to study, it is an exception.

So what have we learned from salticids so far?  Well one thing we have definitely learned is that in spite of having a brain that would fit on the head of a pin with room to spare, salticids are actually quite capable learners.  In fact, research during the last few decades has shown that salticids are capable of learning from their mistakes in a trial-and-error fashion (Jackson & Wilcox 1993), learning to avoid many different kinds of noxious (unpleasant) stimuli (Skow 2006), and even how to take detours in order to reach a goal(Carducci & Jakob 2000).  If that list isn't too impressive sounding, think about how long it can take some dogs to learn a new trick; some spiders show learning after only 2-3 attempts!

This lovely diagram was borrowed from the "Find a Spider Guide."
 http://www.findaspider.org.au/info/spiderNS.htm

We have also learned that the environment a spider is reared in effects how it develops (Carducci & Jakob 2000).  While much of what has been learned from salticids is not directly applicable to humans, this particular finding is definitely applicable!  For example, using the findings from Carducci and Jakob's study, we can draw inferences about how the environment we raise our children in will effect their future mental development. Not bad for a little spider research!

This list of salticid (and spider) based contributions goes on but suffice to say, these little animals are teaching us quite a lot about our world and how things work within it.  My personal research on jumping spiders is about their ability to learn by watching each other.  While much of my work is still in progress, I can say that so far, they definitely seem to be among the handful of non-human organisms that are capable of learning this way.  Stay tuned for more updates!