Background Spider dragline silk is considered to be the toughest biopolymer on Earth due to an extraordinary combination of strength and elasticity. With synthetic biology it is possible to express recombinant spider silk proteins, which are characterized by a highly repetitive rich glycine and alanine sequence [1]. However, production of high molecular weight spider silk protein can be difficu...

Spider bite is common, but most spider bite is minor and causes nothing more than local irritation. Bites from brown recluse spiders (Loxosceles reclusa) result in several clinical manifestations, they possess a venom capable of causing painful, disfiguring necrotic ulcers and, uncommonly, severe systemic effects[1-3]. The diagnosis of a spider bite is typically made on historical and epidemiol...

*Correspondence: Peter Schausberger, Group of Arthropod Ecology and Behavior, Division of Plant Protection, Department of Crop Sciences, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, Peter Jordanstrasse 82, 1190 Vienna, Austria e-mail: peter.schausberger@boku. ac.at Predation is a prime selective force shaping prey behavior. Investment in anti-predator behavior is traded-off agains...

We study the classical game of peg solitaire when diagonal jumps are allowed. We prove that on many boards, one can begin from a full board with one peg missing, and finish with one peg anywhere on the board. We then consider the problem of finding solutions that minimize the number of moves (where a move is one or more jumps by the same peg), and find the shortest solution to the “central game...

We attempt to demonstrate that physicians overdiagnose loxoscelism (colloquially known as 'brown recluse spider bites') by comparing the numbers of such diagnoses to the historically known numbers of Loxosceles spiders from the same areas in four western American states. The medical community from non-endemic Loxosceles areas often makes loxoscelism diagnoses solely on the basis of dermonecroti...

Peucetia viridans (Hentz) lives almost exclusively on Croton ciliatoglandulifer (Ortega) in the dry forests of western Mexico. This spider is usually found on pubescent shrubs. Within their host plants, P. viridans has been associated with plant height and cover, as well as with number of flowers or inflorescences in anthesis. Flowers can be used as cues of good habitat conditions or because th...

Dense sensor event-related brain potentials were measured in participants with spider phobia and nonfearful controls during viewing of phobia-relevant spider and standard emotional (pleasant, unpleasant, neutral) pictures. Irrespective of the picture content, spider phobia participants responded with larger P1 amplitudes than controls, suggesting increased vigilance in this group. Furthermore, ...

The fabrication of cellulose-spider silk bio-nanocomposites comprised of cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) and recombinant spider silk protein fused to a cellulose binding domain (CBD) is described. Silk-CBD successfully binds cellulose, and unlike recombinant silk alone, silk-CBD self-assembles into microfibrils even in the absence of CNCs. Silk-CBD-CNC composite sponges and films show changes in ...

Plants infested with the spider mite Tetranychus urticae Koch, may indirectly defend themselves by releasing volatiles that attract the predatory mite Phytoseiulus persimilis Athias-Henriot. Several plants from different plant families that varied in the level of spider mite acceptance were tested in an olfactometer. The predatory mites were significantly attracted to the spider mite-infested l...

Spider web is being used in India and other countries to promote wound healing. Its ointment at 2.5 and 5% w/w concentrations was tested for wound healing activity in excision and incision wound models in rats. A significant reduction in the area of excision wound was observed for both the treatments when compared to normal healing and control ointment treatments. The period of epithelization f...