Noninvasive genetic sampling enables biomonitoring without the need to directly observe or disturb target organisms. This paper describes a novel and promising source of noninvasive spider and insect DNA from spider webs. Using black widow spiders (Latrodectus spp.) fed with house crickets (Acheta domesticus), we successfully extracted, amplified, and sequenced mitochondrial DNA from spider web...

Autonomic nervous system arousal should theoretically increase during a phobic reaction. Eleven spider phobics and 11 nonspider phobics viewed spider, seascape, and surgical slides while several physiological responses were continuously recorded. Results indicated that spider phobics showed significantly faster heart rate, greater heart rate variability, and vasoconstriction during spider slide...

Knowledge of spider bites in Central Europe derives mainly from anecdotal case presentations; therefore we aimed to collect cases systematically. From June 2011 to November 2012 we prospectively collected 17 cases of alleged spider bites, and together with two spontaneous notifications later on, our database totaled 19 cases. Among them, eight cases could be verified. The causative species were...

In this paper I present some variations of the Solitaire Army game. This game is part of a broader category of one person games: Peg Solitaire games. While Central Solitaire is a relatively well-known and studied game, which is played on a cross-shaped board, little research has been done on Solitaire Army game and its variants. The purpose of this paper is to present Solitaire Army game, its v...

BACKGROUND Spider bite is a subject of much medical mythology with prevalent fears that spiders cause severe envenoming, with neurotoxic effects or necrotic ulcers. Clinical experience and small studies suggest otherwise, but this has not been confirmed by prospective studies of bites by identified spiders. AIM To describe the clinical effects of bites by accurately identified spiders, and de...

Competitive Intelligence (CI) aims to monitor a firm’s external environment for information relevant to its decision-making process. As an excellent information source, the Internet provides significant opportunities for CI professionals as well as the problem of information overload. Internet search engines have been widely used to facilitate information search on the Internet. However, many p...

It is well known that age influences organism mobility. This was demonstrated in vertebrates (such as mammals and birds) but has been less studied in invertebrates with the exception of Drosophila and the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. Here we studied the influence of age on the mobility of the orb-weaving spider Zygiella x-notata during web construction. The orb-web is a good model because i...

The Spider Woman or Grandmother Spider legends are part of the creation mythology for several southwestern American Indian tribes, including the Hopi, Pueblo, and Navajo. One story says that in the beginning of time only two beings existed: Tawa, the Sun God, with the powers of all that is above; and Spider Woman, the Earth Goddess, with the powers of all that is below. The Sun God imagined the...

spiders are poorly studied in iran, based on the latest studies the spider fauna of iran includes 394 species in 126 genera belonging to 36 families. considering the climatic and geographical variation of iran, it can be assumed that iran has a rich spider fauna compared to the adjacent countries. the present study seeks to take a new step in the ongoing active research of iranian spider fauna....