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.

Just got back from Ecuador, where I made new friends, learned new things, and saw some cool stuff! Ecuador is a country that NEVER disappoints. This gorgeous red huntsman spider is Sadala rauli, a rainforest inhabitant that I see quite often but was only formally described as a species a year ago!

Fresh from the oven!

New species!

Holy smokes! I've got the male too! I'm tearing up. Just heard from the scientist that described the new species and this handsome lad is the male. So awesome! (Chrysometa chuchaqui)

*gasps* the pedipalps!!!

New publication! Bark spiders (Caerostris) are known for extremely large webs and toughest silk. Due to cryptic diversity, a recent genome assembly was misassigned. We redescribe valid species and newly describe the species used in the genome assembly. www.ezlab.si/post/bark-sp...

New pub! A short report on a sequence of unusual male behaviors observed in the spider species Nephila pilipes (family Nephilidae), a sexually size dimorphic tropical spider species. www.ezlab.si/post/to-mate...

On Thursday, the XXXI. "Generations of Science" were held at ZRC SAZU. Among the awardees was our Simona Kralj-Fišer, who received the ZRC SAZU Gold Award for top scientific research results. The award was presented to her by the former awardee and colleague, our Matjaž Kuntner. Congratulations!

Did you know that Croatian scientist Zvonimir Maretić was first to develop the serum for European black widow (Latrodectus tredecimguttatus) poison in 1951? This species is quite abundant in some part of Croatia so he had a lot to practice with! 😊

⚠️Alert! Registrations for ECA2025 are officially open from today! Early bird registration is until May 25th, while registration closes on June 20th. Hurry up to book your place! 🕷️All the details are on our webpage: event.fourwaves.com/eca2025/pages

Arthropod decline, particularly in cities, has devastating consequences for predators. Consequently, globally invasive urban spiders are well adapted to long-term starvation (>42 weeks), as demonstrated in my first paper since my PhD. @cp-iscience.bsky.social doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2024.110722

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

New pub! Investigating surface/cave isopods, we test the fluctuating selection hypothesis that suggests genetic and phenotypic variation scales with fluctuations in selection over space and time. Results support the hypothesis for movement activity but not risk-taking. www.ezlab.si/post/varianc...

New pub! Based on largest pisaurid UCE phylogeny + morphological comparison, Dolomedes does not belong to Pisauridae, but Dolomedidae. Climate changes coincide with lifestyle evolution in pisaurids, but in Dolomedidae, rapid species radiation is more likely the driver. www.ezlab.si/post/systema...

So far, in Croatia 771 spider species have been recorded. According to our still unpublished revised check list, the true number is at least 50 species larger. Some of the more eye catching species are: 1. Micrommata virescens 2. Cheiracanthium punctorium 3. Lycosa tarantula