The American Museum of Natural History in New York City will once again feature the "Spiders Alive" exhibit beginning July 4.
This will be the second run of the exhibit in the museum, which was first released to the public in 2012.
"Spiders Alive" will feature 20 live arachnid species, 16 of which are spiders and two of which are scorpions. In the exhibit, visitors can also see spider fossils that are a million years old, inspect the anatomy of huge tarantulas and take a look at the biggest spider research collection in the world, which boasts of over a million spider specimens.
American Museum of Natural History associate director of living exhibits Hazel Davies said that some of featured spiders are the same specimens that were used in the first run of the exhibit a couple of years ago.
"They've been happily hiding behind the scenes, and now they're out again," said Davies.
Davies adds that the 12-inch goliath bird eater, one of the world's biggest spiders, "is sitting right out in front, and she seems quite happy about the whole thing."
Curator Norman Platnick is encouraging all visitors of the exhibit to shed all their fears on spiders.'
"Some of our visitors are likely to arrive with some fear of spiders," he said, but adds that the truth is most spiders are in no way a threat to humans.
"Many are so small that even if they tried to bite you, they couldn't break your skin," said Platnick in an advance viewing of the exhibit. "And their instinct is to get as far as possible from anything as loud, large, noisy and obnoxious as a human being."
Platnick lauds spiders as very important insect regulators, keeping pest population low. Without spiders, pests would have overrun the planted crops of humans, seriously damaging vegetable and fruit supply.
The exhibit also features the unique properties of spider silk, which is tougher than even high-grade steel of the same diameter. Research is being put into replicating spider silk for commercial and military purposes, especially for materials that have to be very strong but still retain flexibility.
Also featured in the exhibit are live specimens of black widows and brown recluses, which are the only species of spiders in the United States that are able to spit harmful venom. Exhibit visitors will be taught how to recognize these deadly species through their unique violin-shaped bodies or hourglass patterns, allowing them to avoid these spiders at all costs.
The exhibit will run at the American Museum of Natural History until Nov. 2.
