That continent keeps trying to seduce me, and it just isn’t right. Look, they’re finding new species of jumping spiders all the time. Those hussies, and their dancing.
And then they’re publishing temptations. It’s spider porn. How am I supposed to resist?
I can’t afford to fly to Australia, so maybe I’ll just have to get a copy of that field guide so I can flip through it in idle moments, you know, to read the articles.
Giant hypno-spider with pulsating eyes, “You will buy my book, I command you!”
More species of spiders ,I think eviluton should cool it for a while .
Moar arachnids that inject digestive fluid into their prey.
Aand… I just realised what to do with CEOs who ban cellphones at work.
Amazing they all got on the ark!
Now we know why “The most frequently asked question [is] who is PZ Myers’s girlfriend?”!
Apparently he has so many, each with lots of eyes & legs, entire books — field guilds at that — are written about them.
I presume a circular flash was used; IIRC the anterior eyes have a reflective layer. The two visible ‘moustache’ eyes also bounce back what I think is a circular flash (if that the correct name for the thingy).
Oh PZ, when this covid nightmare is over/reduced you must come on down. You’d be welcome to stay here for a while and explore the spiders on my place – have not seen those fancy ones (and not seen a jumping spider for a while) but there are plenty of orb and wolf spiders and big huntsmen and many others in my forest and grassland. A Polish arachnologist once came and collected here, so why not an American?
^is
The pic would make a great avatar, b t w.
Is spider porn why webs are sticky?
We Classicists have long since discovered that we can cover our walls in pictures of naked muscular young men (admittedly, usually in statue form), using departmental funds, and call it work. This is why the discipline is 99% gays and women. Shh, don’t tell anyone!
ooh, i should get this and try to identify the spiders in the backyard! also the ones in the bathroom
looks like the selfie the monkey took some years ago and it was involved in legal battles about who actually owned the rights to the picture.
I wonder if ole blue eyes above needs a lawyer.
@6 Ring flash .Just had a look at the book on amazon ,it has 5,000 pages, weighs 50lbs ,is 2ft x2ft x8in ,and costs £1,000 .
HAHA ,not really .
@12, I had to look that up on line ,the guy lost £11,000 ,which is not exactly peanuts .
@7 Can I come as well ? Always wanted to squish a GBBBS like a Huntsman .
Great ,Big ,Bloody ,Bastard ,Spider.
@ 14
A huntsman spider is a beautiful cockroach killing pet that doesn’t leave webby mess around. Why would you want to squish her? No invite to my spider haven for you!
@15 Ok ,what if I promise to behave ?
Kidding aside, it does look like a gorgeous book.
Of possible interest is this vid on the history of scientific illustration at the World Science Festival in Brisbane. It’s just shy of an hour long, however at the 30:25 mark, the presenter, Geoff Thompson, discusses his macro photography setup including a Mitutoyo objective on a 200mm telephoto lens. It will make you weep with envy.
People who like dancing spiders will enjoy this video by zefrank1 on youtube.
The video has two comedians voicing over footage of spiders doing their mating dance. The visual content is shot by researchers and is very high quality. The spiders are peacock spiders.
Damn. Somehow @17 I forgot to link to the video I referenced.