And in just a couple of days later, here is the next mitogenome paper published! Several more on the way in the next few weeks! www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

It has been a long process, but the first of many mitogenome papers is *finally* published! www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Tonight and for an eternity to come we grieve. She was an amazing companion and family member. She is dearly missed.

The periscope-like head of Walckenaeria subpallida (Araneae, Linyphiidae) from Virginia, USA. #InverteFest

This ..

People don’t realize spiders can supplement their diet with pollen. Eggs and Sanders (2013) found juvenile orb-weavers get up to 38 percent from it. Meadows matter. Flowers are tiny gas pumps for murder machines. #science #arachnology🧪 journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...

Setbacks... fixable, but still setbacks...

found a trapdoor spider burrow in the desert yesterday the spider constructs this door from silk & soil & "saliva" bonus liverwort in the LL

New book: A checklist to identify all known species of flies in Canada! doi.org/10.3897/ab.e... "This checklist is a fundamental piece of work that will guide the assessment of the conservation status of those species." @bioinfocus.bsky.social

NCBI is down. Ordinarily, I wouldn't worry, but with the way things are going here in the US I worry that this is more than just a temporary glitch or system update...

I got back reads today! 92 samples with reads across 16 genera and 40 species! My first task: check for a mitogenome in Minicosa neptuna. Got one! 😀 That will be worked out in the next week or two for sure and I hope to get that manuscript ready to be submitted by the end of March!

Just talked to the sequencing facility and it sounds like my first round of lycosids are working out pretty well, including my new favorite spider Minicosa neptuna! I should have data tomorrow to start getting mitogenomes and to use in the phyluce pipeline to extract UCEs!

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...

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!

GenBank can be incredibly frustrating when it comes to submissions. I so thoroughly respect my colleagues there, but still frustrating.

I *finally* got my first mitogenome paper revised and resubmitted. Now I need to chip away at the next several. Hopefully, all will be submitted/resubmitted by the end of February. Only 7 more to go...

2- We found out that Pycnogonida diverged from the rest of the chelicerates during the Cambrian (~539-510 million years ago) while modern sea spiders (order: Pantopoda) took another 100 million years and appeared between the Silurian and the Devonian (~435-367 mya). #CambrianExplosion

YES! DNA acquired from Minicosa neptuna from South Africa! Also, I got quantifiable DNA from all the lycosid species I have from North America, Europe, Israel, Australia, and South Africa! Next step: To the sequencing facility on Tuesday!

Minicosa neptuna female from South Africa! It's a terrible picture taken with my phone, but it's a picture... Scale in the background is 1mm x 1mm.

Unsupervised undergrads...

I am processing lycosid samples from South Africa for DNA extraction. I have 2 specimens of Minicosa neptuna and I have never even imagined adult lycosids that are as small as erigonine linyphiids!

When I left for work today, it was -10° F (-23° C). Thirteen hours later, it is 32° F (0° C). THAT'S A 42° F (23° C) TEMPERATURE SWING IN 13 HOURS!!!

The **high** tomorrow is supposed to be -5° F (-20.5° C). Why do I live in a place like this???

Sci-comm at its finest! @sderkarabetian.bsky.social and I just published a systematic study of arachnids in the Magic: The Gathering card game @mtgarena.com. We discuss classification and evolution of spiders across the multiverse. Check it out here: virginianaturalhistorysociety.com/wp-content/u...

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

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.

This tiny little guy (~1.5mm) is Scolopembolus littoralis, a small dwarf spider that's known only from New Brunswick and Connecticut. That is until we found it at a military fort way south in southern Virginia. Not only that, but the female's never been described and we found her too!

After an amazing day at the Georgia Aquarium, excited for #SICB2025 to get underway! I'll be speaking about jumping spider locomotion, and why it's weird (and cool) on Tuesday the 7th in the "Moving on Up" session at 10:30 am. Lots of great talks in that session!

I added the next round of Amarillo and El Dorado hops to my fermenting double New England IPA (a hazy)! The respiration rate is truly astonishing. Good thing I ditched the regular bubbler airlock for the blowout tube or there would be beer on the ceiling!

Quote of the day: “If it were possible for humans to hear from other animals in their own words, ‘Hey, stop fucking killing us’, maybe people would actually do that,” says behavioural ecologist Mickey Pardo. Context: using AI to decode animal communication. www.nature.com/immersive/d4...

On this New Species episode, a 'perilous Malagasy triad' and a spider named after Iceland's first female president! spotifycreators-web.app.link/e/8gsqSaUmdPb

And, a little tuesday treat! I'm doing a new bonus series! This episode is on the main feed, but head over to Patreon.com/newspeciespod for future episodes. Today Amanda and I rate the movie Bats! (1999) All bonus episodes are and will remain free, but any monetary support is really appreciated.

I am horrified by FedEx's current commercial portraying a driver who killed a rattlesnake while delivering a package as a hero. I have written a letter (text below) to FedEx marketing officials and hope that you will do so as well, and will share this post to get more people involved. 1/4

It's Christmas shopping weeks for #arachnologists! 1st suggestion - membership of the British Arachnological Society from just £20/ year: 3 annual editions of our Newsletter (a new look in 2025) our international journal, plus grants, courses and resources. Via britishspiders.org.uk/membership-i...

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.

Story on a new zombie worm species published in ZooKeys and collected through experimental deployment of cow bones! www.kansascity.com/news/nation-...

we visited the Mojave Nat Preserve early last week. on the first evening in a dense Joshua tree forest, the cloud ceiling was low, blue & cold. but we could see a sliver of possibility in the west, on the horizon, and for a brief moment we had wonderful contrasting golden light

@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

We're ZooKeys, an open-access, peer-reviewed zoology journal published by @pensoft.bsky.social. We're very excited to share our research with you and meet fellow scientists! Submit your manuscript or find out more about us at zookeys.pensoft.net

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

I recently got my first big-boy paper published! I got to discover & describe a new species of parasitoid wasp: Chrysonotomyia susbelli 🧵 zookeys.pensoft.net/article/1275...

New episode! @krakenscholar.bsky.social shares his two new species of cave-dwelling snails from Brazil named after LOTR characters Éowyn and Merry. Don't miss Rodrigo's other work in @jgeekstudies.bsky.social! spotifycreators-web.app.link/e/OhSZtha1POb

Hello Bluesky! We will be using this platform to share new and exciting research from our journal portfolio. To kick things off, here is a video of Nautilus samoaensis, one of three new Nautilius species published in ZooKeys last year. Research paper: doi.org/10.3897/zook...

I am delighted that this, my very first post here on Bluesky, is to celebrate a paper on brains size in ant-mimicking spiders! onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Yep, this a novel gene arrangement for spiders (Araneae). Coming soon!

New Species Podcast is finally on Bluesky! You can find episodes and more at newspeciespodcast.net, and listen wherever you get your podcasts.

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.

The armored dwarf spider, Floricomus ornatulus, was found in southern Texas (Edinburg, Harlingen, and San Juan) 90 years ago and was never seen again. It's about 1.2mm in length, males have a little horn and an orange shield on its back. It lives near the ground in tiny webs. Anyone in the area?

Finally, a (very, very brief) reprieve from teaching to get back to some reviewer comments...