my organic chemistry project

I am a Chemistry major at Penn state and I have to do a research project on something involving organic chemistry for my organic chem class. So this is what I am thinking... I have two ideas. First one is involving the makeup (chemistry) of tarantula venom. How it works and the way the chemicals attack the body of pray and how these same chemicals affect humans. Second one I was pondering would be they way tarantulas use chemicals such as pheromones to communicate with one another. I haven't started much research into it yet, just need a paper title by Monday But I was just wondering what some of your thoughts on tarantulas and organic chemistry and what one seems to be of more interest. I am sure the venom one would be interesting to ppl not really involved in the arachno world but i think communication with pheromones seems interesting too. anyways any thoughts or suggestions are welcome. Oh and yes when i finish my project i will post my findings and reports up if it is of any interest to you guys warning it may get a little chem geeky =D

Very interesting choices for your paper! I'm looking forward to reading it when you're done. I love learning about anything related to Ts and other animals, especially scientifically.

I would tend to go with the venom out of the two choices you mentionned. This because I don't know how much or if any pheromones are released by tarantulas. I can be totally off here so please someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought tarantulas communicated by other ways such as drumming or body posturing when it came to breeding or other "communications".

One thing that has always "piqued" my curiosity in tarantulas is what physically happens to make the male die so much sooner than the females. Since their anatomy is virtually identical save for the reproductive organs, my best guess is that something hormonal in the male makes his body prevent from molting after maturity (save for exceptional cases) and die.

I would be facinated to get the explanation to that mystery!

Pixie