Robert Barker/University Photography

Instructor Linda Rayor: "People are not as frightened by insects as they are of of spiders."

It's a world filled with bondage, supreme sacrifice and cannibalism as a mating ritual.

Given their propensity for horror-movie behavior, it's little wonder that spiders provoke an immediate reaction of fear and disgust from students. That's why Linda Rayor, Cornell University instructor in entomology, does something very unusual: She begins her course on spiders by using education to cure her students of arachnophobia -- the fear of spiders. She shows them a comedy-horror film called Arachnophobia, she talks about spiders in terms of enthusiasm, curiosity and excitement, and she constantly exposes her students to all manner of spiders.

"People are so scared of spiders, I just don't understand it," says Rayor, who has been teaching her class, Entomology 215 "Spider Biology: Life on a Silken Thread," since 1994.

"People are not as frightened by insects as they are of spiders," she says. "Maybe it's the spiders' long legs, their furriness and multiple eyes. And people regard their silk as really gross."

But eventually her psychology pays off as Rayor watches a class full of arachnophobes turn into freshly minted arachnophiles by semester's end. The two-credit course, the only Cornell class to offer a specific, full course on spiders, has become such a success that Rayor receives requests from universities across the United States for her syllabus.

Jennifer Chow, a junior from Voorhees, N.J., arrived in the class last August with the usual fear and loathing of spiders. She ended the class owning a Zebra tarantula (Aphonopelma seemanni) that she named Alice, despite its venomous fangs and irritating hair.

"For those people who have a fear of spiders, they shouldn't shy away from this class. You're never forced to touch a spider," says Chow, who has applied to become a teaching assistant in the class during her senior year next semester.

"Alice is still alive and well," Chow says of her eight-legged pet. "Although I can't take her out of her home, since she has fangs, I have grown very fond of her. I'm actually quite protective. She's as low maintenance as a gold fish, which is perfect for a college student, and she's a great conversation piece."

In addition to understanding spider behavior and how they adjust to their environment, students learn the relative risks of poisonous spiders and how silk works. "Because spiders are a model organism for other facets of biology, I sneak in a fair bit of knowledge, more than the students expect," says Rayor.

Perhaps one of the best agricultural predators, spiders might be among the least-understood. Currently, only 36,000 of the potential 170,000 spider species have been described in academic journals. Famed arachnologist W. S. Bristowe once estimated that an average country acre was home to 2.5 million spiders making serious contributions to reducing insect pests in the field.

Many of the students opt for buying their own tarantulas, but Rayor tells the class, "If you buy an adult tarantula, you are getting an animal that is 3 to 11-years-old and deserves to be treated with respect." They are easy to care for, she says, but need moist, warm areas to live in and to be fed once every one to three weeks.

Some tarantula species are aggressive and fast, and even Rayor does not handle them. "They have half-inch fangs and a feisty nature," she says. "You don't cuddle your fish. I tell students not to cuddle their spiders."

They also have urticating hairs coated with chemicals that itch the skin or inflame membranes.

"I have known people who have gotten urticating hairs of tarantulas in their eyes and needed surgery to have the hairs removed," says Rayor.

But the spiders can also be things of beauty. Last year Melissa Jensen watched her Trinidad Chevron (Psalmopoeus cambridgei) tarantula move about inside a vented Plexiglass cage. In her final report, Jensen described the tarantula's graceful leg movements as being akin to a ballet dancer's développer position, in which each leg is lifted while bent and then extended.

Leanne Cronin observed that her Cameroon Red (Hysterocrates gigas) tarantula is active between 1 a.m. and 3 a.m., and spends eight minutes at a time in grooming. Cronin also purchased a full-grown Pinktoe (Avicularia) tarantula. "I've added a few more spiders to my collection, and I enjoy keeping all of them as pets," she says.

Like many of her colleagues, Beth Germano knew nothing about spiders. But after taking the class she changed her major and served as a teaching assistant. This fall, she will enter the University of Mississippi to study spider behavior for her master's degree.

"It's really a good class," she says. "It's addicting."