Finally! Back with another #ScienteaficABC 😁The next in my alphabetical journey through all 128 (currently, anyway) spider families is ANAPIDAE! This family of diminutive spiders contains 58 genera/231 species as of now. (images: Conoculus lyugadinus by Akio Tanikawa, CC)

They occur worldwide, but mostly S. America, Africa, Asia & Australia/NZ. A few species are found in Europe and North America as well. (Image: Micropholcomma sp. by tjeales on iNat, CC)
Interestingly, Anapidae have either 6 or 8 eyes, with the posterior median pair being either reduced in size or totally absent. They do not exceed around 2mm in body length so, as a family, are very small. (Image: Micropholcomma sp. tjeales on iNat, CC)
They have a modification to the carapace giving them a characteristic raised ocular area. They are tiny (<3mm long), w/ rounded or hunched abdomens & quite short legs. They have a light covering of hairs & some species have spines on their legs & even abdomen. (img: tjeales iNat)
An interesting feature that some species exhibit is the presence of hardened, shell-like dorsal &/or ventral scutes on their abdomen, which are useful in identification. You can see more images including some that show these scutes here: https://t.co/K1ER1dXKaU
Predominantly, Anapidae are orb weavers, though some spin tangle webs. Their orbs are generally horizontally inclined, usually around 2-3cm across, and pulled up in the centre into a tent-like shape. They prefer habitats close to the ground. (Image: ap2il on iNat)
This image, also by ap2il on iNat shows an Anapid spider in its web, inside a spoon for scale. Tiny! (ap2il's page is linked at the end of this thread).
Images are, as always, Creative Commons licensed to the best of my knowledge. If you think I have used an image here that is not licensed for use, please let me know so that I may rectify. Source links:
https://t.co/9H9hSHkXZd
https://t.co/Ohw4MKWuOG
https://t.co/QHAXd0WwUZ
@threadreaderapp unroll please <3

More from Science

@mugecevik is an excellent scientist and a responsible professional. She likely read the paper more carefully than most. She grasped some of its strengths and weaknesses that are not apparent from a cursory glance. Below, I will mention a few points some may have missed.
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The paper does NOT evaluate the effect of school closures. Instead it conflates all ‘educational settings' into a single category, which includes universities.
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The paper primarily evaluates data from March and April 2020. The article is not particularly clear about this limitation, but the information can be found in the hefty supplementary material.
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The authors applied four different regression methods (some fancier than others) to the same data. The outcomes of the different regression models are correlated (enough to reach statistical significance), but they vary a lot. (heat map on the right below).
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The effect of individual interventions is extremely difficult to disentangle as the authors stress themselves. There is a very large number of interventions considered and the model was run on 49 countries and 26 US States (and not >200 countries).
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