Rivers and mountains drive diversification of Liphistiidae
Geological events such as the formation of rivers and mountains can drive diversification. We here test vicariant hypotheses using the...
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Jun 17, 2018
A new species of Stenasellus from Iran
A new stenasellid isopod is described from Tashan Cave, Khuzestan Province, south-west Iran, belonging to the genus Stenasellus Dollfus,...
Jan 5, 2018
Cross-sex genetic correlation & SSD in spiders
Males and females are often subjected to different selection pressures for homologous traits, resulting in sex-specific optima. Because...
Nov 9, 2017
Postdoc position at University of Akron
The laboratories of Todd Blackledge and Ali Dhinojwala, two of our collaborators on the evolution of silk material properties in bark...
Nov 8, 2017
4 new species of "primitive" Qiongthela spiders
The primitively segmented spiders were underexplored until recently. Here, we describe 4 new species from the trapdoor spider genus...
Sep 10, 2017
Revision of the primitively segmented Ryuthela spiders
Here, we provide a taxonomic revision of the liphistiid genus Ryuthela Haupt, 1983, endemic to Ryukyu archipelago, Japan, through a...
Aug 7, 2017
Assessing groundwater habitat pollution of black proteus
Karst areas are among the world’s most vulnerable landscapes to environmental impacts. Most of pollution in karst areas is due to...
Jul 26, 2017
Behavioral variation and plasticity enable survival in urban environments
Urbanization has drastically changed biodiversity patterns. While the majority of species cope poorly with urban habitats, some species...
Apr 30, 2017
Major advance in study of spider silk genes!
Researchers from USA and Slovenia have made a major advance with the largest-ever study of spider silk genes! As they report today in an...
Mar 27, 2017
Scientists overcome the inaccessibility of cave habitats through molecular genetic approach
An international group of scientists has used a novel highly sensitive method for detection of environmental DNA in groundwater to extend...
Dec 25, 2016
Rapid inventory using COI + ITS2 + morphologhy
In the last EZ publication of 2016, we investigated how classical DNA barcoding (using the COI locus) compares to rapid DNA barcoding...
Dec 7, 2016
Pre-copulatory sexual cannibalism in virgin wolf spiders
Pre-copulatory sexual cannibalism (Pre-SC), where females attack and consume courting males, is considered an extreme case of sexual ...
Nov 15, 2016
Discovery of heterospecific mating in spiders
Researchers from Slovenia and South Africa have discovered heterospecific mating in Nephila spiders, and have published their findings on...
Nov 14, 2016
Evolution of genital complexity and mating rates in SSD spiders
Genital diversity may arise through sexual conflict over polyandry, where male genital features function to manipulate female mating...
Nov 12, 2016
New EZ pub on leaf masquerade in spiders
Leaf masquerade is a phenomenon where an animal resembles leaves that are inedible for predators or innocuous for prey. It is well known...
Oct 11, 2016
Phylogeography of Argiope argentata and A. butchko sp. n.
The Caribbean islands harbor rich biodiversity with high levels of single island endemism. Stretches of ocean between islands represent...
Sep 8, 2016
The northern range expansion of the venomous yellow sac spider in Europe
We study the expansion of the yellow sac spider Cheiracanthium punctorium, a medically important species in Central Europe....
Aug 22, 2016
Coevolution of female and male genital components in SSD spiders
EZ lab published new research about genital size differences in sexually size dimorphic spiders. In most animal groups, it is unclear how...
Jul 19, 2016
DNA barcode data accurately assign higher spider taxa
In this new EZ lab publication, we show that, using DNA barcodes, unidentified species can be assigned to higher taxonomic ranks, that is...
Apr 29, 2016
Scientists discover oral sexual encounters in spiders
Researchers from Slovenia have discovered oral sexual encounters in a spider, and have published their findings on 29th April 2016 in the...
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