🕷️ New paper! We describe the remarkable hunting behavior of the Malagasy spider Vigdisia praesidens, a termite specialist that uses silk to "fish" for termites inside damaged nests. This one, too, is from a student field camp in Madagascar! Congrats to all coauthors! www.ezlab.si/post/spider-...

This was a rapid one: idea May 15, fieldwork May 16, submitted May 24, reviews June 11, resubmitted June 18, accepted June 23, published July 8. Idea to acceptance 42 days, to publication 54 days. 🥳 Congrats to undegrad student coauthors!

A simple observation during a student field course in Madagascar led to a publication in The Science of Nature: wind-exposed golden orb-weaver webs host fewer kleptoparasitic spiders, independent of web size.🕸️🕷️ www.ezlab.si/post/gone-wi...

🕷️ New editorial! "Horizons in Arachnid Science" introduces a collection of invited reviews on the latest advances in spider, scorpion, and mite research, from evolution and ecology to silk biomaterials and venom. www.ezlab.si/post/new-edi...

Our new paper! 😜

Spider webs don’t just catch insects, they also catch DNA from the air. 🕸️ Our new study shows they can detect a major forest pathogen more effectively than conventional passive samplers, offering a low-cost tool for biodiversity and disease monitoring. 🌳🔬 www.ezlab.si/post/spider-...

New publication! Updated taxonomy of “coin spiders” (genus Herennia, family Nephilidae). This group is known for extreme size dimorphism, ladder-like webs, and varied distributions across Asia and Australasia. Check out what’s new in their taxonomy in biogeography. www.ezlab.si/post/new-spe...

Schaut Euch mal das irre Spinnennetz im Bild rechts oben genau an. Das ist ja der absolute Wahnsinn😮🤩

New publication! 🕷️ In the Analamazaotra National Park, Madagascar, we investigated how kleptoparasitic spiders choose host webs. The answer isn’t random! Which web to invade? Argyrodine kleptoparasites differentiate amongst architecturally different host webs. bdj.pensoft.net/article/1721...

New publication! 🕷️ In the Analamazaotra National Park, Madagascar, we investigated how kleptoparasitic spiders choose host webs. The answer isn’t random! Which web to invade? Argyrodine kleptoparasites differentiate amongst architecturally different host webs. bdj.pensoft.net/article/1721...

Here is a Youtube video describing our new research. Enjoy! www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rWG...

1/8 A new spider genus from Madagascar! Researchers led by Matjaž Kuntner (National Institute of Biology, Slovenia) have described Osmooka aphana, discovered in the montane forests of Marojejy National Park.

Here is a Youtube video describing our new research. Enjoy! www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rWG...

Check out our new paper! Not only do we describe a cool spider (new genus) from Madagascar, related to an Australian one, but we also make a deep dive into orb weaver morphology to better understand family relationships and synapomorhpies. Proud of this one!

1/8 A new spider genus from Madagascar! Researchers led by Matjaž Kuntner (National Institute of Biology, Slovenia) have described Osmooka aphana, discovered in the montane forests of Marojejy National Park.

Extreme Silk Toughness in Caerostris Spiders Is Limited to Adult Females - Gregorič - Integrative Zoology - Wiley Online Library onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

New paper on bark spiders, who build the largest webs made out of the toughest silk. We show that their extremely tough silk, which is potentially metabolically costly, is limited to large females. Juveniles and males use inferior silk.

New publication! Orb weavers evolved some of the toughest silk, reaching extremes in bark spiders, genus Caerostris. We investigate sex and stage specific patterns in silk properties and find that extremely tough silk is limited to adult females. www.ezlab.si/post/extreme...

New study from @michellebeyer.bsky.social published in Animal Behaviour: Silk of females performing maternal care elicits reduced courtship responses in male spiders.

Here comes Carolina's first paper on the effects of winter temperatures on survival, physiology and gene expression in wasp spiders. Thanks go to all coauthors for their various contribution that made this work possible!🧪🕷 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/... #climatechange

Come and work with us in our new home @bristolbiosci.bsky.social ! This fully funded PhD opportunity is open to anyone interested in spiders/eyes/light pollution/evolution/development! 🕷️👀 ⏰Deadline 15th December, online info event TODAY @2pm! Link in the PhD advert👉 www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

Among other things we are interested in how Portia performs in hunting spiders after sleep disruption. #spider #sleep

Sounds legit! 😁

A pair of golden orb weavers from S. Africa (Trichonephila inaurata) mating back in 2016. #Arachtober

🚨🚨Job! 🚨🚨Permanent (75% time) job! We are a pretty awesome research group & seek a manager who deals with everything: personnel tasks, organizing retreats, preparing code for teaching / data structures for research... Fluency in German & English essential. stellenboerse.uni-mainz.de#/jgu/job/51527

Our journal congratulates @ortizmovliavc.bsky.social l for her award at @35theca2025.bsky.social ! Her work, “Winter warming increases metabolic stress and mortality in an overwintering spider,” got her a free publication in a @pensoft.net journal. zookeys.pensoft.net/news/993

Okay, I warned you yesterday but SPIDER POST SPIDER POST SPIDER POST. Look. Spiders are great! They're our friends. They do good work out there and in our houses. I love spiders and how can you not love THIS spider, who is both a work of art *and* wildly successful at this game of hide-and-seek?

In a new publication, we focused on the little-known African spider Megaraneus gabonensis, in which females are 4x larger than males. We provide an overdue taxonomic description, phylogenetic placement, and reconstruct the evolution of sexual size dimorphism. www.ezlab.si/post/taxonom...

In a new review, we dig deep into possible explanations of the evolution of female cannibalism in spiders and various male strategies to mitigate it. www.ezlab.si/post/female-...

Spiders have personalities—and in Pisaura mirabilis, opposites might attract: adventurous males and cautious females mate longer, revealing hidden personality-driven patterns in romance. Lead by @cristinatuni.bsky.social Read more here: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Why do female spiders eat their mates, and how do males fight back? 🕷️ Our new review unpacks the evolutionary dynamics of sexual cannibalism and the astonishing male strategies it has shaped — from nuptial gifts to remote copulation. Open access in Integrative Zoology 👉 doi.org/10.1111/1749...

We - EZ lab @ezlab.bsky.social (past/current) - presented our latest research at the European congress of arachnology @35theca2025.bsky.social . @matjazgregoric.bsky.social

New research on spider personalities, led by Cristina Tuni. In Pisaura mirabilis, opposites might attract: adventurous males and cautious females mate longer, revealing hidden personality-driven patterns in "romance". Read more here: www.ezlab.si/post/in-pisa...

Amazing congress! At EZlab, we're proud that 5 current/past members attended. :)

Our plenary talk today: Unraveling Sexual Size Dimorphism in Spiders: Current Insights and Emerging Frontiers by Simona Kralj - Fišer

Today we covered themes related to systematics & phylogenetics, evolutinary biology & genomics, and faunistics & distribution. From Nemesiidae, Salticidae and Theridiidae to scorpions and pseudoscorpions: our lecturers gave their best and gave us insight into their research.

EZ's Simona with an excellent plenary talk!

Spiky or smooth: How should widow spiders construct their egg sacs? By Valeria Arabesky

Our amazing sponsors are the real MVPs! • @pensoft.net : cutting-edge biodiversity publishing • @peerj.bsky.social : high-quality peer review in biology & health Thanks for making this congress possible!

🕷️#Arachnews alert! 🦂 New Foelix (the definitive reference for general spider biology, a must-have for every arachnologist & arachnophile) just dropped. Now called Spider Biology, this is an completely rewritten & updated version of the Biology of Spiders (2011). link.springer.com/book/10.1007...

So happy to have this published: academic.oup.com/zoolinnean/a...

🎓 #PhD in Animal Metabolomics & Ecology @unigreifswald🇩🇪 Sexual and non-sexual communication in a widow spider 🕷️⚗️ DFG-funded | 3 years | behavioral ecology & chemical ecology Details: bit.ly/widow-phd Apply by Sept 24, start in February 2026 #AcademicSky #pleaserepost

The Local Organizing Commitee welcomes behavioral ecologists from across the world and of all career stages to enjoy a five-day meeting rich in top-notch science and ample networking opportunities in Turin (Italy), 20-24 July 2026.

a little late for pride month, but we'll forgive that for a gynandromorph spider! 🕷️🌈🥰

Our arachno-colleague, Dr. Peter Jaeger, has the ambitious goal of running an inclusive and low-budget scientific conference: the Asian Conference of Arachnology (ACA) 2025. All donations will cover travel and conference expenses for students and ECR from low-income regions in Asia. #arachnology

Interested in arachnid silk structures? Read this editorial by our @matjazgregoric.bsky.social, @dinrao.bsky.social, and André Walter, and see what articles appear in the new research topic at Frontiers in Arachnid Science. www.frontiersin.org/journals/ara...

Arachnid of the week is Euscorpius biokovensis, 2020

🪲✈️ Slow-motion footage of 23 flying #insects by @dradriansmith.bsky.social explains the wide variety of flight mechanics out there. From beetles to stoneflies, each species developed different strategies. 👉 Learn more: zurl.co/OclZV

A game I get to play often in Ecuador… One of these things is not like the other. Do you see him? Imagine looking in an entire forest.