Not So Scary

Not So Scary

From the Royal BC Museum

Learn about this research project led by Entomology Collections Manager and Researcher Claudia Copley.

Learn about this research project led by  Curator of Entomology Dr. Joel Gibson

Entomology Collections Manager and Researcher Claudia Copley dispels myths about spider danger in British Columbia.

Entomology Collections Manager and Researcher Claudia Copley explains why spiders seem to be everywhere in the fall. 

Begin Your Own Research

Read and search the Royal BC Museum website for more information and images from the entomology (insects and allies) collection.

Outside Links

These links will take you away from the Learning Portal. Come back soon!

Jeff Bolingbroke of Parks Canada writes about Royal BC Museum staff members Claudia Copley, Dr. Robb Bennett and Darren Copley on a spider research trip in Mount Revelstoke and Glacier National Parks. Photographs document the beauty of field research in British Columbia. (Courtesy The Revelstoke Current)

E-Fauna BC’s Spiders of British Columbia is authored by Royal BC Museum Research Associate Dr. Robb Bennett. This Electronic Atlas of the Wildlife of British Columbia is an excellent resource to find out more about spider life in this province. Klinkenberg, Brian. (Editor) 2015. E-Fauna BC: Electronic Atlas of the Fauna of British Columbia [www.efauna.bc.ca]. Lab for Advanced Spatial Analysis, Department of Geography, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, August 18, 2015.

Spiderbytes is a blog about spiders written by Catherine Scott, a doctoral student in Biology at the University of Toronto.  Each of the posts share interesting bits of information (“bytes”) about spiders. Catherine Stott notes that spiders usually do NOT bite people and one of her goals is to shift perceptions about spiders from fearsome and aggressive to amazing and fascinating arthropods.

BugGuide is an online community of naturalists who enjoy learning about and sharing their observations of insects, spiders, and other related creatures in Canada and the United States. BugGuide is hosted by Iowa State University Department of Entomology.

The Xerces Society is a non-profit organization that protects wildlife through the conservation of invertebrates (animals without backbones) and their habitat. This website features a blog, fact sheets and Citizen Science projects that allow you to contribute to insect conservation.

An excellent site all about spiders and hosted by the Burke Museum in Washington state.