arachnid

14 Stories

'Hercules' Is Bigger Than a Baseball, Will Try to Kill You

Biggest male specimen of world's most venomous spider found in Australia

(Newser) - Wildlife experts Down Under are likely thrilled at their latest acquisition from a scientific standpoint, but mostly everyone else is keeping a healthy distance. The Australian Reptile Park in Somersby now has among its ranks the largest male specimen of the world's most venomous arachnid , a Sydney funnel-web spider...

Invasive Tick Can Clone Itself, and It's Spreading Quickly

Asian longhorned tick has spread to 19 states, poses a threat to livestock

(Newser) - An invasive tick species is making its way across the US from the east, with particularly worrisome news coming from one of the 19 states where it's been spotted, reports Smithsonian Magazine . After researchers confirmed the Asian longhorned tick killed three cows in Ohio, there's growing concern over...

The Thing of Your Nightmares Might Actually Have Dreams

Spiders seem to experience REM sleep, with twitches suggesting they act out activities

(Newser) - You've probably seen a dog kick its legs mid-dream, as though running. Spiders apparently do much the same thing, according to a new study—the first to indicate that arachnids dream. Daniela Roessler, a postdoctoral fellow at Germany's University of Konstanz, trained infrared cameras on sleeping spiders at...

These Giant 'Flying' Spiders May Take Over East Coast

'Try to learn to live with them' is scientists' advice

(Newser) - Last fall, Georgia residents were dismayed to make the acquaintance of the Joro spider, a palm-sized, "flying" creature hailing from East Asia that showed up in the Peach State by the millions. Now, scientists say, people further north should prepare, because the 3-inch-long arachnids with bright yellow stripes, also...

Massive Killer Spider Found in Australia Could Save Lives

Australian Reptile Park plans to milk the 'megaspider' to make antivenom

(Newser) - If you happen to have handed over a massive spider with fangs almost an inch long to an anti-venom program in Australia, the Australian Reptile Park wants to hear from you. The park says the funnel-web spider, nicknamed "megaspider," is the largest arachnid of this kind that the...

Ancient Spiders With Tails to Cause Modern Nightmares

The creature lived 100M years ago in Myanmar

(Newser) - Congratulations to science on discovering an even more terrifying spider. OK, so Chimerarachne yingi isn't quite a spider and lived 100 million years ago. But still. The discovery of the apparent spider ancestor—four individuals of which were found trapped in amber from Myanmar—was revealed in a paper...

Your Fear May Make This Spider Look Huge

Arachnophobia may boost people's size estimates

(Newser) - When Noga Cohen, a grad student at Israel's Ben-Gurion University, spotted a spider one day, arachnophobe and fellow student Tali Leibovich freaked out about its size. Cohen thought that odd, because the eight-legged arachnid looked tiny to her, reports Live Science . And so a study was born. They set...

'Spooky' Quarter-Mile Spider Web Stuns US Suburb

Visitors come to marvel at silky creation

(Newser) - Most people aren't crazy about spiders—but sightseers are finding time to visit an enormous spider web spanning hundreds of feet of trees in a Dallas suburb, WFTV reports. "I've never seen anything like this," a man there with his grandchildren tells WFAA . "I think...

Singer Discovers Tiny Spider in Her Ear
 Singer Discovers 
 Tiny Spider in Her Ear 
in case you missed it
Nov 8, 2014 5:02 PM CST

Singer Discovers Tiny Spider in Her Ear

Katie Melua had unwittingly hosted critter for a week

(Newser) - Georgian-British singer Katie Melua went to the doctor complaining of a repetitive shuffling noise in her ear and worried there was something wrong with her hearing. Closer inspection revealed she'd been housing a tiny spider for a week—likely having come from a pair of earbuds she likes to...

Look Out Black Widow, Here Comes Brown Widow

Less toxic rivals may be taking over in West

(Newser) - Good news: You may now be slightly less likely to find a black widow spider hiding in your shoe. Researchers discovered that the deadly arachnid is being crowded out of swaths of its native US territory by a new creepy crawler to the scene—the brown widow, reports LiveScience . The...

Spider Silk Discovery Opens Way to Super Matter

Method may "make it possible to build bricks from straw'

(Newser) - Spider silk is yielding secrets that could pave the way for incredibly strong building materials, researchers say. MIT scientists found that the silk uses a unique crystal structure that makes it both strong and able to bend without breaking. They believe it is possible to copy that structure to turn...

Killer Spiders Invade Sydney
 Killer Spiders Invade Sydney 
Jan 21, 2010 1:44 AM CST

Killer Spiders Invade Sydney

Warm weather blamed for influx of funnel-webs

(Newser) - A heavy infestation of funnel-web spiders is giving Sydney residents the jitters. Experts say the spider—one of the deadliest and most aggressive in existence—is arriving in unusually large numbers because of warm and wet weather. The spider's bite can be fatal within two hours, although no Australians have...

World's Biggest Web-Spinning Spidey Found

Rare African orb-weaver spins 3-foot webs

(Newser) - A gargantuan new species of orb-weaving arachnid found in South Africa is the biggest web-spinning spider ever discovered, scientists say. The female Nephila komaci has a leg span bigger than a man's hand and spins webs more than 3 feet wide, the BBC reports. Arachnophobes will be glad to hear...

Scientists Build a Better Web—by Adding Metal

(Newser) - Scientists have combined spider silk with metal atoms to boost web strands' already-phenomenal strength, reports Ars Technica. The breakthrough experiment advances the science of creating ever-stronger materials, as well discovering a successful method to bond metal to biological material. Experiments are already under way to make chicken eggs stronger.

14 Stories
Most Read on Newser