Latest Tarantula Stories

redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports – Your Universe Online Arachnophobes beware: scientists have found an enormous, previously undiscovered species of tarantula – said to be about the same size as a human face – in a remote village in Sri Lanka. The species, which was discovered by the South Asian country’s Biodiversity Education and Research (BER) agency, has “unique daffodil-yellow markings” on its eight-inch long legs and a “distinctive pink band” around its body,...

When we’re faced with things that seem threatening, whether it’s a hairy spider or an angry mob, our goal is usually to get as far away as we can. Now, new research suggests that our visual perception may actually be biased in ways that help motivate us to get out of harm’s way. Our bodies help us respond to threats by engaging our fight-or-flight response and enabling us to act quickly: Our heart rate and blood pressure ramp up, and we produce more of the stress hormone cortisol....

April Flowers for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online A few tropical habitats in Asia, Africa, South and Central America, and the Caribbean are known for being home to arboreal tarantulas, which are generally lighter in build, have thinner bodies and longer legs. This allows them to better climb different surfaces and makes them more agile than land based spiders. The core area for arboreal tarantulas is in the Amazon where most of the species are known and relatively common, living in...

Michael Harper for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online A new study suggests that expressing your feelings and fears in times of anxiety and stress may actually help you through these times and confront your fears. In fact, according to this UCLA psychology study, the more negative and fearful words you use, the better chance you have of reducing your fear and stress. In order to test this theory, the UCLA psychologists asked 88 participants to face a very common human fear: A...

Ten new species are highlighted in the Top Ten New Species list for 2012, the fifth year for this interesting record. The list, created by the International Institute for Species Exploration at Arizona State University and a committee of scientists from around the world, was released on May 23, the birthday of the Swedish botanist who created the current system of flora and fauna classification, Carolus Linnaeus. Since Linnaeus created this system in the eighteenth century, almost two million...

A new species discovered from a college town backyard [ Watch the Video ] Researchers at Auburn University have reported the discovery a new trapdoor spider species from a well-developed housing subdivision in the heart of the city of Auburn, Alabama. Myrmekiaphila tigris, affectionately referred to as the Auburn Tiger Trapdoor spider, is named in honor of Auburn University's costumed Tiger mascot, Aubie. The research team, directed by Biological Sciences professor Jason Bond, lead...

New species of parasitic spider flies discovered in Australia Spider flies are a rarely collected group of insects. Adults are considered important pollinators of flowers, while larvae live as internal parasitoids of juvenile spiders. Eight genera are recorded in Australasia, including four genera in the subfamily Panopinae, a group of large, hairy, often metallic colored adults whose larvae specialize as parasitizing mygalomorph spiders such as tarantulas, trap door and funnel web...

The more afraid a person is of a spider, the bigger that individual perceives the spider to be, new research suggests. In the context of a fear of spiders, this warped perception doesn't necessarily interfere with daily living. But for individuals who are afraid of needles, for example, the conviction that needles are larger than they really are could lead people who fear injections to avoid getting the health care they need. A better understanding of how a phobia affects the perception...

ATLANTA, Jan. 23, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- (DoD BOOTH #116)-A new forensic tool introduced by eDEC Digital Forensics (www.edecdigitalforensics.com) of Santa Barbara, CA, an innovator in the field of mobile digital forensics, assisted a DEA investigation by acquiring a treasure trove of evidence from 3 Chinese cell phones confiscated from a suspected drug trafficker. A sign of the times, the new cell phone analysis tool, called Tarantula, was designed specifically to analyze the...

Researchers have used a specialized Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scanner on tarantulas for the first time, giving unprecedented videos of a tarantula's heart beating."In the videos you can see the blood flowing through the heart and tantalizingly it looks as though there might be 'double beating' occurring, a distinct type of contraction which has never been considered before. This shows the extra value of using a non-invasive technique like MRI," says PhD researcher Gavin...