Araneology (SPIDERS) with Dr. Marshal Hedin

Why would a spider have a frog best friend? Why do they love your shower? Does lemon repel them? Should you rehome them outside? Why so hairy? How do you identify the harmless ones? Which ones get kinky? Hey. This will be fun. If you’re afraid of spiders, this is the best first step to conquering that fear forever. If you love spiders, you’re in good company with Dr. Marshal Hedin, a San Diego State University professor who has dedicated his life to the diverse array of araneids. Also: why they need and deserve your love.

Listen via Apple, Spotify, iHeart, Podbay, Podcast Addict, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Visit the Hedin Lab at SDSU and follow Dr. Hedin on Bluesky, iNaturalist, and Google Scholar

A donation went to the San Diego State University Biodiversity Museum

Links to things we discussed:

His Spidey Sense Must Have Been Tingling: SDSU Biologist Discovers New Species

Phylogenomics of paleoendemic lampshade spiders (Araneae, Hypochilidae, Hypochilus), with the description of a new species from montane California

Antifreeze proteins in Alaskan insects and spiders

Video: “deer eating a bird”

Spidey Tek

Evolution of Chemosensory Gene Families in Arthropods: Insight from the First Inclusive Comparative Transcriptome Analysis across Spider Appendages

Assessing the Impacts of Balsam Woolly Adelgid (Adelges piceae Ratz.) and Anthropogenic Disturbance on the Stand Structure and Mortality of Fraser Fir [Abies fraseri (Pursh) Poir.] in the Black Mountains, North Carolina

Spiders May Have Personalities, and Some Are Bolder Than Others

Natural Compounds as Spider Repellents: Fact or Myth?

Believing that Humans Swallow Spiders in Their Sleep: False Beliefs as Side Effects of the Processes that Support Accurate Knowledge

Do People Swallow Eight Spiders Per Year?

Spiders in sleep: tHis is a Big troLl

Elegy For The World’s Oldest Spider

The sensory equipment of a spider – A morphological survey of different types of sensillum in both sexes of Argiope bruennichi (Araneae, Araneidae)

Evolution of Chemosensory Gene Families in Arthropods: Insight from the First Inclusive Comparative Transcriptome Analysis across Spider Appendages

Assessing the Impacts of Balsam Woolly Adelgid (Adelges piceae Ratz.) and Anthropogenic Disturbance on the Stand Structure and Mortality of Fraser Fir [Abies fraseri (Pursh) Poir.] in the Black Mountains, North Carolina

Tiny Frogs and Giant Spiders: Best of Friends

Commensalism in Microhylid frogs and mygalomorph spiders

Harry Potter got the spider wrong

My Critter Catcher

House spider varieties

Mayo Clinic: Specific Phobias

Lampshade spiders

Myth: House spiders belong “back outside”

Australian funnel-web spider

Animal Behaviour: Task Differentiation by Personality in Spider Groups

Taranto, Italy

Deinopidae: ogre-faced spiders

Antifreeze proteins in Alaskan insects and spiders

Antivenom treatment in arachnidism

What is antivenom?

Risky mate search and male self-sacrifice in redback spiders

Other episodes you may enjoy:

Kinetic Salticidology (DANCING SPIDERS)

Spidroinology (SPIDERWEBS)

Fearology (FEAR)

Herpetology (REPTILES)

Culicidology (MOSQUITOES)

Speleology (CAVES)

Aperiology (MACRO PHOTOGRAPHY)

Scorpiology (SCORPIONS)

Entomology (INSECTS)

Forest Entomology (CREEPY CRAWLIES)

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Editing by Mercedes Maitland of Maitland Audio Productions and Jake Chaffee

Managing Director: Susan Hale

Scheduling Producer: Noel Dilworth 

Transcripts by Aveline Malek

Website by Kelly R. Dwyer

Theme song by Nick Thorburn