Date: March 15, 2016
Source: University California Los
Angeles
A biologist spent several weeks in dark
caves in Puerto Rico inhabited by an estimated 300,000 bats -- many of which
whizzed right by him -- as well as snakes, cockroaches and spiders. He was
studying poorly understood whip spiders, which are related to spiders and
scorpions.
Would you be willing to spend each night
in the company of 300,000 bats -- all in the service of science?
UCLA biologist Kenneth Chapin did just
that, for several weeks in 2012 and 2014, while conducting research in darkened
caves in Puerto Rico
He was studying whip spiders, a poorly
understood relative of spiders and scorpions. Unlike other spiders, whip
spiders do not build webs, and they have very long claws.
"They look terrifying, but are
actually delicate, timid and afraid of you," said Chapin, a UCLA doctoral
candidate in ecology and evolutionary biology. "I was more excited than
terrified."
A whip spider made a prominent appearance
in the movie version of "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire," when a
Hogwarts professor tortures the animal with magic. (In the J.K. Rowling book
that the movie on which the movie is based, the creature is described as a
spider that doesn't actually exist in nature.)
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