Static allometries do not reflect evolutionary allometry in exaggerated weaponry of male New Zealand sheetweb spiders (Cambridgea spp.).

Across the animal kingdom, exaggerated weaponry is frequently used by one sex to contest access for potential mates. Within species, if disproportionate investment in weaponry confers an advantage to larger individuals, this may result in positive static allometry. It is predicted that the same selective pressures may also lead to positive evolutionary allometry, where larger species bear disproportionately large weapons on average, compared with smaller species.

The global spread of misinformation on spiders.

In the internet era, the digital architecture that keeps us connected and informed may also amplify the spread of misinformation. This problem is gaining global attention, as evidence accumulates that misinformation may interfere with democratic processes and undermine collective responses to environmental and health crises. In an increasingly polluted information ecosystem, understanding the factors underlying the generation and spread of misinformation is becoming a pressing scientific and societal challenge.

An expert-curated global database of online newspaper articles on spiders and spider bites.

Mass media plays an important role in the construction and circulation of risk perception associated with animals. Widely feared groups such as spiders frequently end up in the spotlight of traditional and social media. We compiled an expert-curated global database on the online newspaper coverage of human-spider encounters over the past ten years (2010-2020).

The World Spider Trait database: a centralized global open repository for curated data on spider traits.

Spiders are a highly diversified group of arthropods and play an important role in terrestrial ecosystems as ubiquitous predators, which makes them a suitable group to test a variety of eco-evolutionary hypotheses. For this purpose, knowledge of a diverse range of species traits is required. Until now, data on spider traits have been scattered across thousands of publications produced for over two centuries and written in diverse languages.

Under-represented and overlooked: Māori and Pasifika scientists in Aotearoa New Zealand's universities and crown-research institutes.

This article provides insights into the ethnicity of people employed in Aotearoa New Zealand's publicly-funded scientific workforce, with a particular focus on Māori and Pasifika scientists. We show that between 2008 and 2018, Māori and Pasifika scientists were severely under-represented in Aotearoa New Zealand's universities and crown-research institutes. Despite espousals by these institutions of valuing diversity, te Tiriti o Waitangi and Māori research, there have been very little changes in the overall percentage of Māori and Pasifika scientists employed for a period of at least 11 years.