Taiwan Today

Chen Shyh-hwang, an assistant professor in the Department of Life Science at National Taiwan Normal University in Taipei, has done much to identify the spiders living on the island and dispel myths about their characteristics. For example, while most people believe that contact with a Brown huntsman spider or its urine will cause blisters, the real culprit is the rove beetle; the spider, or Heteropoda venatoria, is actually a scapegoat, Chen said. Not only is the spider not harmful, it is actually a natural predator of cockroaches, and can take the place of pesticides in the home. Regarded as “Taiwan's Spiderman," Chen explained that among some 40,000 types of spiders known to the world, 400 spiders have been documented in Taiwan, but nearly two-thirds of the island’s spiders, or 1,000 types of spiders, have yet to be identified. In the past six years of teaching arachnology at NTNU, Chen has requested students go to the public graveyard on Chanchu Mountain to collect specimens of spiders, promising to flunk anyone who fails to do so. He said while many people think spiders are evil or disgusting, he thinks each and every spider is beautiful. Of the 55 types of spiders Chen discovered in Taiwan in one year, 15 species had not previously been identified either in Taiwan or overseas. The remaining 40 species had previously not been logged in Taiwan, and he discovered eight new species of spiders from the Araneae family. Chen is preparing to write a chronicle of spiders in Taiwan. Chen's doctoral thesis was on frog chromosomes. However, given that arachnid research was mainly carried out during the Japanese occupation of Taiwan, he felt he should study Taiwan's spiders. Chen's laboratory at NTNU has 50,000 specimens of spiders, and he plans to establish Taiwan's only spider reproduction lab there. Chen said most spiders are, contrary to local people's beliefs, not poisonous. In fact, some species of spiders do not even spin webs. Chen noted that the Naphila clavatais is the largest species of spider discovered in Taiwan; the female of the species is some seven times larger than the male, which is only about one centimeter in length. The body of the smallest spider here is only 1.0 to 1.2 millimeters in length. Taiwan's most lethal spider, Latrodectus hasselti, is a distant relative of the black widow spider. Although a bite by this spider is enough to kill a person, they are mostly located in mountainous areas and are rarely seen by people. Therefore, people do not need to worry about them, he said. Meanwhile, Chen said the oddest-looking spider here is the Poltys, the back of whose abdomen looks like a withered leaf, with a petiole-like part of its body extending forward from its abdomen. The spider's head faces downward, quietly waiting for its prey. The cutest spider, according to Chen, is the Argiope aemula, a type of golden orb-web spider, which makes an X pattern in its web. Chen said he also previously discovered a Taiwanese spider from the Pisauridae family that only appears in mountainous areas over 1,000 meters in elevation. (This article originally appeared in “The Liberty Times” March 31.)