From Fear to Fascination: More Research and Awareness to Protect India’s Misunderstood Spiders
Citizens across India are working to dispel myths and raise awareness about the importance of spiders, writes Laasya Shekhar, in Mongabay. Explore some of our work in the area.
Azim Premji University in Bengaluru has an elective course called ‘Bugs in the System’ for non-biology majors, who explore arachnids and insects on the campus. Besides evoking curiosity, the course also tries to change the perspective of students on urbanisation disgust, where negative attitudes towards such creatures manifest as the emotion of disgust.
Spider fascination in the university runs deep!
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Of dancing spiders, inquisitive scientists and arecanut dancefloors
Divya Uma and Dinesh Rao have been researching spider behaviour for over a decade. When Kiran Marathe told them about his dancing arachnids, they jumped at the chance to investigate.
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Biology Research: The curious case of the ant-mimicking spider
Nandita Jayaraj explores how one crafty arachnid and two inquisitive ecologists, Divya Uma and Krishnapriya Tamma, inspired Nimish Anil, an undergraduate student of biology, to pursue a life in research.
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Bugs in the system | Photo exhibition
From insect disgust to becoming bug finders, how a course for non-biology major students led to insect diversity awareness on the campus
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Article
An arachnid’s guide to being an ant: Morphological and behavioural mimicry in ant-mimicking spiders
Batesian mimicry imposes several challenges to mimics and evokes adaptations in multiple sensory modalities. Myrmecomorphy, morphological and behavioral resemblance to ants, is seen in over 2000 arthropod species. Ant-like resemblance is observed in at least 13 spider families despite spiders having a distinct body plan…