Voices of Montreal Interviews Dr. Catherine Scott, Spider Sex Researcher
The volunteer crew behind the Voices of Montreal broadcasts has been tackling some interesting subjects over the past few weeks but this takes the cake.
Dr. Catherine Scott is an arachnologist and behavioural ecologist who studies spider communication, mating, and foraging behaviour. They completed their Master of Science in Biology at Simon Fraser University and Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Toronto Scarborough. Their research here was focused primarily on the sexual behaviour of western black widow spiders. Dr. Scott is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow at McGill University.
The former arachnophobe is passionate about shifting perceptions about these fascinating creatures. To do this, Scott engages in science communication and participatory research projects like “Recluse or Not?”, which tracks the range of recluse spiders in North America by providing expert spider identification to anyone who submits a photo of a suspected brown recluse.
Dr. Scott blogs at spiderbytes.org, and you can also find them on Twitter (@Cataranea), where they are always happy to answer questions about spiders and other arachnids.
Tune in to CKUT from 5-6pm Friday March 3rd to learn more. (edit* check out the interview here)
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