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Parasteatoda Wau
''Parasteatoda wau'' (formerly ''Achaeareanea wau'') is a species of social spider that lives around Wau, Papua New Guinea Wau is a town in Papua New Guinea, in the province of Morobe. It has a population of approx 5,000 and is situated at an altitude of around 1100 metres. Wau was the site of a gold rush during the 1920s and 30s when prospective gold diggers arrived .... The spider exhibits a complex dispersal behavior akin to swarming in social bees. It was first described by Herb Levi, Yael Lubin, and M.H. Robinson in 1982.Levi, H. W., Y. D. Lubin & M. H. Robinson. (1982) Two new ''Achaearanea'' species from Papua New Guinea with notes on other theridiid spiders (Araneae: Theridiidae)., ''Pacif. Insects'' 24: 105-113. Colony structure A ''P. wau'' colony consists of a flat, horizontal web, made of mesh silk, and a tangle of vertical silk strands forming a barrier. Insects fly into this barrier and fall to the mesh web, where the spiders capture them and feed on them. Su ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Social Spider
A social spider is a spider species whose individuals form relatively long-lasting aggregations. Whereas most spiders are solitary and even aggressive toward other members of their own species, some hundreds of species in several families show a tendency to live in groups, often referred to as colonies. Spider sociality Most species of social spiders live in the tropical regions of the world where size and density of their prey — insects — is highest. But several species reach into the eastern United States and other temperate areas. By building a communal web, it is thought that the spiders approximately maximize total biomass capture per spider. Having a larger web and multiple spiders to work together to subdue prey allows them to prey on larger organisms than would be possible if they led a solitary existence. The colonies can grow large enough to take down birds and bats, as well as very large insects. Living in a colony also has another major benefit for spiders: c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wau, Papua New Guinea
Wau is a town in Papua New Guinea, in the province of Morobe. It has a population of approx 5,000 and is situated at an altitude of around 1100 metres. Wau was the site of a gold rush during the 1920s and 30s when prospective gold diggers arrived at the coast at Salamaua and struggled inland along the Black Cat Track. At the Battle of Wau in January 1943, the Australian Army stopped an advance by the Japanese. A road was established soon after World War II to Lae and this fostered the further development of local timber and agricultural industries that were originally established in support of the mining industry. While much of the mineral reserves have been extracted, industrial gold mining continues at Edie Creek and at the newly established Hidden Valley Gold Mine operated by Morobe Goldfields (a subsidiary of Harmony Gold - South Africa). The Wau Ecology Institute is a biological research station situated near Wau. Gold mining history Gold rush The first strike at Wa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Herb Levi
Herbert Walter Levi (January 3, 1921 – November 3, 2014) was professor emeritus of zoology and curator of arachnology at the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University. He was born in Germany, educated there and at Leighton Park School, Reading in England. He then received his higher education at the University of Connecticut and the University of Wisconsin. Levi authored about 150 scientific papers on spiders and on biological conservation. He is the author of the popular Golden Guide ''Spiders and their Kin'', with Lorna Rose Levi (his wife) and Herbert Spencer Zim. Levi received the 2007 Eugene Simon Award from the International Society of Arachnology "for his immense influence on US spider research". He was an elected honorary member of the American Arachnological Society. Levi was an editorial board member for the ''Journal of Arachnology''. The pseudoscorpion genus ''Levichelifer'', the spider species ''Anisaedus levii'' and the whip spider species ''Phrynus levii'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Theridiidae
Theridiidae, also known as the tangle-web spiders, cobweb spiders and comb-footed spiders, is a large family of araneomorph spiders first described by Carl Jakob Sundevall in 1833. This diverse, globally distributed family includes over 3,000 species in 124 genera, and is the most common arthropod found in human dwellings throughout the world. Theridiid spiders are both entelegyne, meaning that the females have a genital plate, and ecribellate, meaning that they spin sticky capture silk instead of woolly silk. They have a comb of serrated bristles (setae) on the tarsus of the fourth leg. The family includes some model organisms for research, including the medically important widow spiders. They are important to studies characterizing their venom and its clinical manifestation, but widow spiders are also used in research on spider silk and sexual biology, including sexual cannibalism. '' Anelosimus'' are also model organisms, used for the study of sociality, because it has ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spiders Described In 1982
Spiders (order Araneae) are air-breathing arthropods that have eight legs, chelicerae with fangs generally able to inject venom, and spinnerets that extrude silk. They are the largest order of arachnids and rank seventh in total species diversity among all orders of organisms. Spiders are found worldwide on every continent except for Antarctica, and have become established in nearly every land habitat. , 50,356 spider species in 132 families have been recorded by taxonomists. However, there has been debate among scientists about how families should be classified, with over 20 different classifications proposed since 1900. Anatomically, spiders (as with all arachnids) differ from other arthropods in that the usual body segments are fused into two tagmata, the cephalothorax or prosoma, and the opisthosoma, or abdomen, and joined by a small, cylindrical pedicel, however, as there is currently neither paleontological nor embryological evidence that spiders ever had a separate ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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