Curiocity: In Pursuit of London

Product Information

Chrysti. Verbivore’s Feast, Second Course: More Word & Phrase Origins. Helena, MT: Farcountry Press, 2006. Humans swallowing spiders while sleeping is a highly unlikely myth • It is a myth that a human will swallow an average of four (or any number) of spiders while sleeping during his or her life. It is highly unlikely a spider will ever end up in a sleeping human’s mouth. [15] Spider-Man is one of the most popular superheroes. In early comic books, the radioactive spider that bites Peter Parker is incorrectly referred to as an insect. [13] A spider has no bones. Rather, it has an exoskeleton, which is like a hard suit of armor that protects its body. Because an exoskeleton does not grow, a spider molts. Typically, a spider molts about 10 times throughout its life. [2] Savage-Smith, Emilie, and Yossef Rapoport (eds.), The Book of Curiosities: A critical edition. World-Wide-Web publication. ( www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/bookofcuriosities). (March 2007).

The treatise was almost certainly composed before 1050. The tribal group of the Banu Qurrah are mentioned in chapter 6 of Book 2 as inhabiting the lowlands near Alexandria. As the Banu Qurrah are known to have been banished from the region of Alexandria by the Fatimid authorities in 1051–1052, it is very likely that this treatise was written before that date. Since Sicily is described as being under Muslim rule, the treatise could definitely not have been composed later than the Norman invasion of Sicily in 1070. Spider legs use hydraulic pressure to move • A spider’s muscles pull its legs inward, but cannot extend its legs out again. Instead, it must pump a watery liquid into its legs to push them out. A dead spider’s legs are curled up because there is no fluid to extend the legs again. [12]

Museum Departments

Water spiders are the only spiders that spend their entire lives in water. The spiders construct a “diving bell” that allows them to live and spin webs underwater. They use their legs like a fishing pole to pull in insects, tadpoles, and even small fish. [8] While most spiders build a new web every day, the web of the gold orb can last several years and can even catch birds. [8] Hennessy, Hannah, ‘Arabic atlas offers unique view of 11th-century world’, The Times, 20 July 2002, p. 9. You’ll still hear those chimes on the BBC today. They are played before the News, amongst other things. Big Ben was Once Late Chiming New Year

Two kinds of jumping spiders have been found at 23,000 feet. At this height, no plants grow, but plant material blows up from lower elevations, which is enough to feed the tiny creatures. [8] A tarantula can liquefy the body of a mouse in just 2 days, leaving behind a pile of just skin and bones. [2] At the furthest edges, even the boundaries between human and vegetable begin to dissolve: On a distant island in the Indian Ocean grow the Waq-Waq trees, which bear fruits in the shape of plump, curvaceous women who constantly scream “waq waq!” According to a later manuscript containing a partial copy of the first book, the original treatise consisted of three additional books, devoted to horses, camels and hunting. These chapters were not copied in the manuscript copy held at the Bodleian library, but we know of their existence through parallel manuscripts containing excerpts from the original treatise (see below section 4).During the 16th and 17th centuries, it was believed that a bite from a species of wolf spider (named tarantula, from the Taranto region in Italy) would be deadly if the victim did not dance to a specific type of frenzied music. It inspired a dance called the tarantella. [2]