science

World Spider Catalog

World Spider Catalog is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand World Spider Catalog rather than just read about it. In short: The World Spider Catalog (WSC) is an online searchable database concerned with spider taxonomy. It aims to list all accepted families, genera and species, as well as provide access to the related taxonomic literature.

Key takeaways

World Spider Catalog belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect World Spider Catalog to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of World Spider Catalog from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The World Spider Catalog (WSC) is an online searchable database concerned with spider taxonomy. It aims to list all accepted families, genera and species, as well as provide access to the related taxonomic literature. The WSC began as a series of web pages in 2000, created by Norman I. Platnick of the American Museum of Natural History. After his retirement in 2014, the Natural History Museum of Bern took over, converting the catalog to a relational database. As of January 10, 2026, 53,656 species are listed, after an average discovery rate of three new species per day. The order Araneae has the seventh-most species of all orders. The WSC's existence makes spiders the largest taxon with an online listing that is updated regularly. It has been described as an "exhaustive resource" that has "promoted rigorous scholarship and amplified productivity" in the taxonomy of spiders.

References

External links

Archive of previous versions

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with World Spider Catalog

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what World Spider Catalog claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to World Spider Catalog before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about World Spider Catalog ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of World Spider Catalog

In research: World Spider Catalog appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses World Spider Catalog in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: World Spider Catalog is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Arachnology, Databases in Switzerland, Online taxonomy databases, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for World Spider Catalog outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Ask Teacher Smith questions about this articleOpens your AI tutor with a question about “World Spider Catalog” →

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study World Spider Catalog in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what World Spider Catalog means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain World Spider Catalog out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is World Spider Catalog in simple terms?

Why does World Spider Catalog matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study World Spider Catalog?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on World Spider Catalog.