The tangled web around spiders
An Indian biologist with a passion for spiders took a Harvard Museum of Natural History audience on a tour of arachnids large and small Monday, delivering a colorful peek at their diversity along with a plea for their conservation. Marashetty Seenappa, a visiting professor at Bangalore University, spoke in a packed Haller Hall in Harvard’s Geological Museum building, covering basic spider anatomy, biology, and conservation before fielding questions from the audience. Spiders have a long history, with primitive species arising 360 million to 400 million years ago, gradually evolving small, light, hairy bodies, the ability to weave silk, and other characteristics. With eight legs and two main body parts, spiders are different from insects, on which many of them prey, and which have three body parts and six legs. With eight eyes, spiders have 360-degree vision which, coupled with poison-injecting fangs, makes them formidable predators. Spiders, Seenappa said, are misunderstood and often killed unnecessarily....