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For #FossilFriday, meet Plesiosiro. This is a ~315 million year old weird arachnid, found near Birmingham in the UK. It's a lovely fossil but even so figuring out where it sits on the arachnid tree of life has been... annoyingly challenging. Nowadays, we are fairly confident that it... ⚒️🧪🦀🦑 #evosky

1. For the past thirty years I've had the best job in the world. 
I've had the opportunity to follow my curiosity; explore the workings of nature and society; mentor students and junior colleagues in the same process; and teach generations of students about it all.

For the finale of our spider ID resources thread, at the hardcore end of the week's spectrum we have 20 'difficult species' accounts for groups where the species are very similar and difficult to distinguish: download from our website at srs.britishspiders.org.uk/portal.php/p... #spiders #arachnids

J'ai mis un peu de temps à traiter les photos, mais début février, j'ai croisé par hasard ce mâle de mygale Atypus sp qui se baladait malgré le froid ! On la trouve nativement sur l'hexagone, et celui-ci faisait autour de 10/12mm de corps. Le reste du temps, elle reste bien planquée dans son terrier

Maso sundevalli. #Arachnids #Spiders #VC55

It’s dispiriting to see the future leaders of climate research at institutions like GFDL fired indiscriminately (...) Artificial intelligence cannot compensate for a lack of human intelligence www.science.org/content/arti...

Still plenty of Microneta viaria out there in what remains of the leaf litter. #Arachnids #Spiders #VC55 #UKWildlife #macrophotography #macro #OMSystem

Here we have a male Walckenaeria acuminata just look at it, a common spider but how fasinating is it! @britishspiders.bsky.social #spiders #arachnids #walckenaeria

Species of interest - Typhochrestus digitatus. This small linyphiid is mature principally through the winter unlike most other outdoor UK spiders, which mature in late spring or autumn. This reduces competition from other species but prey is likely harder to find. Photo by @tylanberry.bsky.social .

Some of the coolest and perhaps most under-appreciated African carnivores are solifuges. The ferocity of these incredible arachnids, a.k.a. camel spiders or sun spiders, easily matches that of the wild dogs and, just like the canines, they can dismember their prey in a matter of seconds.

Do you have any wolf spiders (Lycosidae) collected in the last couple of years? If so, I am looking for specimens from any species and any location *in the world* to add to a genetic study of the family. Let me know if you think you can help!

*hooded cultists chanting* Rake-legged mite! Rake-legged mite! Rake-legged mite! Oh and a tiny bristle millipede, all with sand grains for scale. Finally got to find bugs this week. 🤎

welcome to the world new spider genus Siskiyu. you've been lurking in the dark, magical woods of far northern California for millenia. Now the humans have finally gotten around to telling your story, at least in part this research was funded by the NSF OA here zookeys.pensoft.net/article/1402...

Whip spider (Paraphrynus laevifrons) covered with chloropid fly puparia. The parasitoid fly attacks the eggs carried by the female. When done, the maggots climb on the "childless" mom's back and pupate. She protects them during this period thanks to her motherly instincts.

For #FossilFriday may I present to you an amazing scorpion, Pulmonoscorpius kirktonensis. It may look like the moult of a modern species, but these are actually ~330 million year old fossils, dissolved out of a rock from 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 using acid. ⚒️🧪🦀🦑 #evosky

Conférence de Raphaël Jeanson à Cahors « Dans la tête d’une araignée » le 28 janvier 2025 sco.lt/52oZI8 Carrefour des Sciences et des arts

I was really excited to be able to key out this tiny (395 micron) mesostig mite I found in coast redwood leaf litter all the way to species - not an easy task for most mites. Meet Cosmozercon setosus, slide mounted in Hoyer's medium. 🤩

Word up. It's #FossilFriday. This week, meet Eophrynus. This is a ~315 million year old member of the trigonotarbids - an extinct group, related to spiders, whip spiders, and whip scorpions. Check out the spines! I love this fossil. ⚒️🧪🦀🦑 #evosky

1/2 #speciesaday no. 519 is Troxochrus scabriculus. A small, local money spider that I almost always only find on chalky arable fields on the Downs (where it can be quite numerous), using the suction sampler. Although I have had it on amenity grassland in central Brighton too.

A feast about to happen: the very rare and critically endangered Kangaroo Island Assassin Spider showing off her impressive mouthparts, whilst carrying around her 8-legged prey 🕷️🧪 #invertebrate #conservation #biodiversity #spider #australia

The insanity of being a fire ecologist in the epicenter of a major fire event, bags packed and ready to evacuate, watching active fire from my window, while taking media requests and explaining to the public, for the 100,000th time how climate change is largely responsible for this

Just a wicked cool ground spider from northern regions, this is Gnaphosa brumalis, found in Makkovik, NL.

Now we're into a new year, I'd like to advertise once again this project in which I have put so much ! (english subtitles available) If you love animals and especially if you're into bugs, you'll like it ! #invertebrate #spider #nature #wildlife #doc #documentary #japan #crab #bat #snake #entomology

@forthespiders.bsky.social Mystery Linyphiid! A friend of mine collected this male near Tulsa, Oklahoma (more pics in comments) It keys to either Sphecozone or Silometopoides, but neither is a good match

#Phreatoicopsis raffae is a strange #isopod in the suborder Phreatoicidea. These isopods mostly live in groundwater, but Phreatoicopsis is semi terrestrial. They are endemic to #Gariwerd, or the #Grampians, and unfortunately the place I saw it just burnt in a bushfire :( #InverteFest #ArthropodArt

It's been 97 years. In early 1927, arachnologist William Barrows was collecting spiders near Gainesville, Florida and came across a new species of armored dwarf spider that he later named Floricomus bishopi. It was never seen again. That is until @tyuge.bsky.social found it again in GA! Behold!

Ok people. I’m drawing silhouettes this afternoon. If you have a paper coming up and you are in need of a #silhouette please let me know and I will have it ready today. As always I upload all my silhouettes to phylopic.org I also have tutorials on how to put a silhouette in a plot in R.

Just identified this observation as Serendib, a rather rare ant-mimicking corinnid spider. This particular one seem to be mimicking D. gigas, but with its abdomen as the head www.inaturalist.org/observations...

THREAD This Is The Story Of The The Pernicious Rise of AI-Generated Papers and their Online Impact An Incomplete History Told In The Voice of Documentarian Adam Curtis 1/31

PS, Schizomida do this too 🥰 So cute! (figure from bioone.org/journals/the...) #arthropods #arachnids #arachnida

My good friends @jellybb.bsky.social and @rianbraig.bsky.social have finally both made it to Bluesky, so now it's time to re-share our passion-project paper from earlier this year! We looked at cool morphological trends over time in short-tailed whip scorpions! sjpp.springeropen.com/articles/10....

Have yourself a merry little Carboniferous. #Art #SciArt #PaleoArt #Inverts

La régénération des pattes est un avantage pour les arthropodes, mais son processus diffère selon les taxons. Chez les mille-pattes, elle peut être "progressive", ou "explosive" si l'appendice est entièrement régénéré après une mue. sco.lt/8K7OlM Frontiers in Zoology

💬 thought experiment: Invertebrates are 97% of all animals and there's 6 fungi per plant sp. How would this #WWF report look, if we cared about all biodiversity? 🧮 we would have found 1038 Fungi and 2069 Inverts - but none of those groups were even mentioned asiapacific.panda.org/our_work/wil...

MASSIVELY excited to see Tityus achilles, South America's first #venom spraying #scorpion, finally described in @zoojlinnsoc.bsky.social ! This new species from #Colombia can spray venom at potential predators, a striking case of convergent #evolution 🧵 (1/n) academic.oup.com/zoolinnean/a...

New Cases of Teratology, Albinism, Abnormal Pigmentation, Gynandromorphism, and Injury Healing in Scorpions. A great collaborative effort between mostly independant researchers and students and my most recent publication for your interest : www.researchgate.net/publication/...

From @bbcbrazil.bsky.social, "Inside the illegal spider market that moves millions in Brazil: 'Fever in the middle class'." Article includes quotes from Global Center Invertebrate Coordinator, Dr. Sérgio Henriques. 🌍🧪🕷️ www.bbc.com/portuguese/a...

Un bon moyen d'identifier une araignée, c'est de regarder ses yeux ! La taille et la disposition des yeux ("eye pattern") sont souvent différentes entre les familles 1 : Holconia murrayensis (Sparassidae) 2 : Hogna radiata (Lycosidae) 3 : Misumena vatia (Thomisidae) 4 : Quelques eye patterns

The face of a tiny sheet-web weaving spider (Dicymbium elongatum) from a relict fen in central Indiana. I found this spider under desiccated reeds and sedges in October. This is the first time this species has been recorded from the state.

A new view of #SpeciesConcepts by @jeannettewhitton.bsky.social and me, clarifying time frames while unifying interbreeding, genealogy, and traits. A general-purpose species should be a reproductive community (bound by cohesive processes) viewed retrospectively (RRCC).  doi.org/10.18061/bss...

@britishspiders.bsky.social @cofnod.bsky.social @tylanberry.bsky.social @graemelyons.bsky.social Getting December off to a bang! I love finding new spiders and this one is particularly nice. I don't think I was long out of nappies the last time this was found in Bucks Walckenaeria corniculans

Alright arachnologists and arachnid enthusiasts, let’s get this started! Drop a comment below if you would like to be added or have people to add. Let’s make the official AAS starter pack 💪🕷️🦂🕸️ go.bsky.app/8Nb8974

Indosmodicinus bengalensis from Jambi, Sumatera. Crazy looking carapace

Notes from the field (with conservation lessons from Mexico) coming up soon. Meanwhile, here is a picture of the Endangered Black Velvet,one of the most peaceful animals on earth.

My wildlife documentary made in Okinawa is finally online, three years after I first told you about it! Thanks to your support during the crowdfunding and access to the Jiyuu-Hugo Sarrade grant, I spent two months on location filming animals.

Woodland denizen, leaf litter lurker, Microneta viaria. #Arachnids #Spiders #VC55 #UKWildlife #macrophotography #macro #Linyphiidae

A Walckenaeria subpallida male from Seashore State Park, Virginia. Oftentimes erigonine males (money / dwarf spiders in the family Linyphiidae) have carapace extensions and modifications that allow females to grip them during mating.