Chicks from 0 to 61 days post-hatching were gently folded into the hatching position and placed in artificial glass eggs. Within 0 to 2 min they began to produce a behavior that qualitatively resembled normal hatching. Furthermore, quantitative analysis of electromyographic records showed that under these conditions the intralimb and interlimb leg motor output patterns produced during each hatc...

Increasing evidence suggests that disgust and fear of contamination is involved in spider phobia. Yet, because the evidence exclusively relies on self-report data it can not be ruled out these findings are produced by mechanisms such as a negative attribution bias, or imprecise emotional labeling. Therefore, the present study sought to complement these previous studies by including physiologica...

This paper presents a novel design of a Jiegged “spider” robot capable of moving in a wide range of two-dimensional tunnels. The spider moves in a quasistatic manner, by stably bracing itself against the tunnel walls and moving a free limb to a new position. The design has been strongly influenced by the recent immobilization theory of Rimon and Burdick [13, 15]. The theory dictates the minimum...

A 48-year-old woman who worked as a cleaner in a Kashan University of Medical Sciences dormitory received a spider bite while collecting garbage on a summer afternoon. She feltimmediate irritation on her arm. She noticed a spider, which she removed and killed. The irritation, itching, and redness on her arm continued. Her hand became edematous and painful after four days and she suffered from i...

The development of a spider silk-manufacturing process is of great interest. However, there are serious problems with natural manufacturing through spider farming, and standard recombinant protein production platforms have provided limited progress due to their inability to assemble spider silk proteins into fibers. Thus, we used piggyBac vectors to create transgenic silkworms encoding chimeric...

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...

Many species alter the timing of hatching in response to egg or larval predators, pathogens, or physical risks. This plasticity depends on separation between the onset of hatching competence and physiological limits to embryonic development. I present a framework based on heterokairy to categorize developmental mechanisms and identify traits contributing to and limiting hatching plasticity, the...

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...

Embryos attached to the female crab Sesarma haematocheir hatch synchronously within 1 h. Hatching is also synchronized near the time of the expected nocturnal high tide. These events are governed by a single circatidal clock (or pacemaker) in the female crab. The present study examined the role of the optic peduncle of the eyestalk on hatching and hatching synchrony. Surgery was performed eithe...