W. Wyatt Hoback, Professor of Entomology earned his PhD in Entomology but never had a course that covered the biology of arachnids. Since 2023, he has taught Arachnid Biology at Oklahoma State University, sharing the unique biology and diversity of the group with his students. The course has laboratory activities, and this manual grew from the collaboration with Lauren Osborn who loves spiders and earned a doctorate in English. The laboratory manual focusses on identi­fication of common families of spiders in the southwestern United States and laboratory investigations that can be conducted almost anywhere using spiders collected from campus, parks, or backyards. As a group, spiders and related arachnids are under-studied and under-appreciated by the public and we hope these activities increase awareness and love for these amazing and important predatory arthropods.

Lauren Osborn earned her PhD in English from Oklahoma State University and has spent her entire life as an avid arachnid admirer. She hopes that by studying spiders, students might be enlightened to their ecological, behavioral, and societal bene­fits. She currently lives with her tarantula collection in Gettysburg, PA where she teaches creative writing at Gettysburg College.