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    All Featured Books
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  • Home
  • News
  • Featured Books
    • All Featured Books
    • Book of the Month Series
  • User Stories
  • Campaigns
    • Fossil Stories
    • Garden Stories
    • Monsters Are Real
    • Page Frights
    • Her Natural History
    • Earth Optimism 2020
  • Tech Blog
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Biodiversity Heritage Library - Program news and collection highlights from BHL

All posts tagged with spiders

Blog Reel, Campaigns, Featured Books, Page Frights

Arachnophobes Beware! The Birth of Spider Nomenclature Just in Time for Halloween!

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Arachnophobia (the fear of spiders and other arachnids) is one of the most prevalent phobias in the world, and some estimates suggest that over 30.5% of people in the United States alone have a fear of arachnids (Health Research Funding 2014). Given the pervasiveness of this phobia, we thought it only appropriate to spend some time on the subject of spiders as part of our Page Frights celebration. Being the science-focused organization that we are, we decided to look at the topic of arachnids from a taxonomic point of view. The founding text on spider nomenclature is Svenska Spindlar. It was published in 1757 by Carl Clerck, a member of the Swedish nobility.
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October 27, 2016byGrace Costantino
Blog Reel, User Stories

BHL: Continuing to Inspire a Love of Natural History

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In the Northern Hemisphere, the winter season is well underway. Cold temperatures mean that species of all kinds must face many new challenges in order to survive the next few months. Spiders are no exception. One might assume that spiders die off once winter hits. While this is true for some species, it is not true for all spiders – many remain active in winter months. How do they manage this? Through a variety of physiological and behavioral adaptations. Behavioral adaptations include moving their homes to “overwintering sites” such as the “subnivean zone,” an area between the snow and the ground, or concealed locations in leaf litter or under bark, where it’s warmer. Spiders also have a physiological adaptation that helps them brave the cold months.
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January 14, 2016byGrace Costantino
Blog Reel, User Stories

The Tarantupedia, an online encyclopaedia for the biggest spiders in the world

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Tarantulas are amazing. Not only do they include the largest of all spiders, with some species reaching a legspan the size of a dinner plate, but they are arguably some of the most beautiful too. While famous for giants that inhabit the jungles of South America, some species barely grow larger than your thumb nail. Some species live on trees in damp forests while others live in self-constructed tubular burrows in the ground in some of the most inhospitable deserts. Some have special protective hairs on their bodies which cause extreme itching when they come into contact with the mucous membranes of potential predators, while others produce a hissing sound in self-defense.

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August 13, 2015byDimitri Kambas
Blog Reel, User Stories

Exploring Arachnids with Harry Potter and Logan Pierce

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If you’re a Harry Potter fan, then you know what the three unforgivable curses are. And if you’ve seen the movies, you’ll remember the scene where Mad-eye Moody demonstrates those curses in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. If you’re recalling the scene now, you’re probably thinking, “Yeah, he tortured and killed a spider.” If that’s what you’re thinking, you’re wrong (if you managed to avoid the Harry Potter craze and have no idea what we’re talking about, just smile and nod with superiority at not being taken in by our leading comment and read on).
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September 4, 2014byGrace Costantino
Blog Reel, User Stories

Biology Catalog and Joel Hallan

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For BHL and Our Users this week, we’re doing things a little differently. Instead of a questionnaire-style post, Program Manager Grace Costantino interviewed this week’s guest, computer programmer and spider enthusiast Joel Hallan of Texas A&M; University, over the phone. Each question is presented below as a separate video.We’re trying to be more interactive with our interviews in the future, and we hope this will serve as a first good step in that direction!
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September 18, 2012byGrace Costantino
Blog Reel, User Stories

BHL and Our Users: Dr. Petra Sierwald

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This week we feature a researcher from one of our partner institutions, the Field Museum in Chicago. So without further ado, meet Dr. Petra Sierwald, a woman with a passion for spreading biodiversity knowledge to ensure equal participation among researchers in all parts of the globe and educating the younger generation on the importance of biodiversity conservation.

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April 12, 2011byGrace Costantino
Blog Reel, Featured Books

Book of the Week: Halloween Special

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So, Halloween’s just around the corner, so we at BHL thought it might be appropriate to highlight a species, and a book, appropriate for the season. Most likely, if you had to associate a single species from the animal kingdom with the spine-tingling glee of the Halloween experience, it would be the spider (unless you are a fan of the recent vampire craze, in which case you’ll likely choose a bat). Most people, when they think of a Halloween spider, probably draw to mind images of Black Widows, or simply enormous, generic, black, eight-legged beasts. However, did you ever think to imagine a spider with horns on its body? If not, well, you’re in luck.

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October 18, 2010byMichelle Strizever

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The Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) is the world’s largest open access digital library for biodiversity literature and archives. Headquartered at the Smithsonian Libraries and Archives in Washington, D.C., BHL operates as a worldwide consortium of natural history, botanical, research, and national libraries working together to digitize the natural history literature held in their collections and make it freely available for open access as part of a global “biodiversity community.”

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