Campers Beware...
Written by Amanda Keister
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Regretfully, Matt Persons was unable to debunk the myth that we eat up to eight spiders in our lives while sleeping. That's because on one camping trip, Persons awoke to kind a Daddy longlegs inside of his mouth. "And they have these repugnatorial glands that make them taste really bad, so I can tell from personal |
"I can only guess, yeah maybe people do eat spiders, but I at least wake up when I have an arachnid crawling in my mouth." Who knew spiders " those leggy, hairy creepy creatures most of us run from "could be so darn interesting? Matt Persons knows, and he loves to talk about it.
Persons, 38, is an associate professor of biology at Susquehanna University with a focus in arachnology. One of the nation's leading spider experts, Persons hosted the 2007 American Arachnological Society at the university. His research includes understanding how spider silk draglines influence predator-prey interactions between wolf spiders, their predators, and their prey. His laboratory at Susquehanna literally chirps with activity as hundreds of crickets await their final destination - dinner for one of Persons' more than 600 wolf spiders, most of which were found in his own yard just outside of Selinsgrove. "I've always liked little creepy crawlies,"Persons says. "Even when I was like, 5 or 6 years old, I'd follow an ant around for about 45 minutes or an hour, which is pretty weird for a little kid."
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