And the spider marches on...

Dear readers,

In spite of the lack of regular (or otherwise) updates lately, we here at Yours for 8 Eyes are not in fact dead.  What we are though, is incredibly busy.  Two weeks ago I (Matt) and a soon to be new contributor (Jon) went to Cedar Point Biological Station in Ogallala, NE for a little collecting trip.  What we ended up with instead was Matt and Jon's Wild Spidery Ride.  Instead of bring back between 100-150 salticids as we had hope, we picked up nearly that many on our second day!  We even had some days where we were only able to collect for part of the day due to the weather, but still collected more than 100 specimens that day.  Long story short, we ended up returning with ~400 live salticids and several more preserved specimens.

Each row of vials represents a "new" species found at CPBS.

I can hear you thinking, dear reader, "what does this have to do with you and why haven't you been posting more anyways?"  Well, what this has to do with you is that our booklet (mentioned in earlier posts) will now contain more than 40 species of salticid from Nebraska and should be rife with beautiful color pictures of all of the specimens.  As for the lack of posting, lets just say 400 salticids is more than double the amount we've ever had alive in the lab and is turning out to be a ton of work.  Thankfully, we enjoy the work!

Salticus scenicus, an incredibly common species we encountered  at CPBS.

So what's to come then?  Well, the short term plan is to keep posting, hopefully on a weekly basis.  The longer term plan includes getting that booklet done and published, continuing to pursue arachnological outreach through this blog and in person, and even graduating!  It's going to be a busy little while, but stick with us and some exciting things should appear here shortly.

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!

Photo batch round 1!

As promised, here are a few photos of some amazing salticids that will be featured in the upcoming book. While not all of these will necessarily make the cut, the species will all be present.  All photos were taken by Jonathan Knudsen.

Female, unidentified.

Female ant mimic, unidentified.

Male ant mimic, unidentified but different species from the one above.

Male Phidippus audax.

As always, we welcome your feedback!

Spiders have Teeth?!

Sort of...

If you take a very close look at some spiders, including several species of salticid, you will see on their chelicerae (fangs) a few small bumps.

Male,  Salticus sp. arrows indicate cheliceral teeth.  Photo Credit: Shawn Custer

Male,  Salticus sp. arrows indicate cheliceral teeth.  Photo Credit: Shawn Custer

These bumps (red arrows) are known as cheliceral teeth and are used to masticate (chew) prey in much the same way as our teeth.  The major difference being that while our teeth come in a variety of shapes and sizes so that they can be used for different purposes, the cheliceral teeth on a spider are only used to break down prey items into smaller bits.  The particular specimen shown above is a male from the genus Salticus.  In this case it is very easy to determine the sex of the spider as only males have the very enlarged chelicerae, and only when they are sexually mature.  Normally, however, the cheliceral teeth and fangs are not so exposed.  The picture below presents a much more normal view of this same specimen, very much how we would find one in nature.

Male, Salticus sp. Top down view with scale bar.  Photo Credit: Shawn Custer

Male, Salticus sp. Top down view with scale bar.  Photo Credit: Shawn Custer

As you can see from this photo, the chelicera are normally folded up and are frequently covered by the pedipalps (the two small appendages on top of the chelicera in this photo).  As a result, virtually the only people to have ever seen a spider's cheliceral teeth are arachnologists who are trying to identify the specimen, as the presence and shape of the teeth are a diagnostic character used in many dichotomous keys. 

You may have noticed that both of these photos are not only of the same specimen but are also by the same person.  That is because these photos, and the few that follow, are all preliminary photos for the book mentioned in last week's post.  From now until the book is released, we will strive to release at least one new photo a week so that you, dear reader, will have an idea of what is to come.  We hope you enjoy the photos and would love to hear your feedback on them!

Male, Salticus sp. front view.  Photo Credit: Shawn Custer

Male, Salticus sp. front view.  Photo Credit: Shawn Custer

Platycryptus undulatus, Top down view.  Photo Credit: Matt Adams

Face on view of an unidentified salticid.  Photo Credit: Jonathan Knudsen

Face on view of an unidentified salticid.  Photo Credit: Jonathan Knudsen

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.

More on vision

I came across this interesting tidbit of a video about jumping spider color vision and how they hunt.  The link will take you straight to the video, and from there you can find out more information about the study by clicking on the link to the right labeled "read the article."

Happy Watching!

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!