Newsletter of the African Newsletter 18 Arachnological Society December 2005 This is the newsletter of the African Arachnological Society (AFRAS). The aim of AFRAS is to foster interest in arachnids (non-Acari) of the African continent. 8th AFRICAN COLLOQUIUM OF ARACHNOLOGY Report by the organizers: penaar-Schoeman. Many interesting records and valuable material for karyological and The 8th African Arachnology Colloquium ethological studies were collected, particularly was held at the scenic Maselspoort resort by the two Czech scientists and Dirk Kunz of IN THIS ISSUE outside Bloemfontein from 31 January to 4 Germany. All of the tourists enjoyed them- February 2005, and was jointly hosted by selves thoroughly, and were fascinated by the Dept. of Arachnology at the National South Africa's diversity of animals, and that 8th African Colloquium 1 Museum (Leon Lotz) and Dept. of Zoology doesn't just include spiders! & Entomology at the University of the Free Magnificent eight 3 State (Charles Haddad). This was the first New members 3 time that the congress was held in the Free Report by one of the delegates - State, and it turned out to be a very suc- Meg Cumming: Congratulations 4 cessful occasion. News snippets 4 “Vrystaat!", always a masculine and winning Institutional News 5-14 The Dean of the Faculty of Natural and Ag- cry on the rugby field, displayed the same ricultural Sciences, Prof. Herman van characteristics in the field of spiders. It is New publications 15–17 Schalkwyk, and the Director of the National common knowledge that the spider ladies- SANSA 17 Museum, Dr. Rick Nuttall, gave a few words team who have organised recent colloquia are SANSA Progress 2005 18 of welcome to all the delegates at the wel- amazingly efficient and charming, so everyone coming function. Because of the limited was a little anxious about handing over to 'The 8th African Colloquium 19-25 number of researchers working on African Boys' this year. But Leon Lotz and Charles Specimens wanted 26 arachnids, the Colloquium is always a small Haddad confounded the sceptics and pre- meeting, but this year more than 30 dele- sented us with a colloquium which was perfect gates attended, including foreign research- in every way. The venue was the Maselspoort ers from Zimbabwe, Namibia, Belgium, Resort, 25km outside Bloemfontein, on the Germany, England and the Czech Republic. banks of a willow-dangling dam, with hills In total, 29 papers and 8 posters were pre- around, and opportunities for morning and Enquiries and infor- sented, many dealing with biodiversity and evening walks. The National Museum, repre- mation should be systematics projects that form part of two sented by Leon, and the University of Free sent to the editor. umbrella projects, the African Arachnid Da- State, represented by Charles, played hosts tabase (AFRAD) and the South African Na- and also invited us to visit their premises in tional Survey of Arachnida (SANSA). The the city. Warm thanks are due to all involved guest speakers provided talks of a high Editorial committee standard, and included presentations on Pseudoscorpion karyology and woodlouse- Editor: eating spiders by Franta Stahlavsky and Dr Ansie Dippenaar- Milan Rezac, respectively (Czech Republic), Schoeman spider genitalic evolution (Rudy Jocqué, Belgium), and fossil and amber spiders Co-editors: (Dave Penney and Paul Selden, England). Included in the congress program was an Ms Annette van den Berg "off day", where delegates were taken to Ms Almie van den Berg Oliewenhuis and the Botanical Gardens for collecting and lunch. Address ARC-Plant Protection Several interesting records were collected, Research Institute and much public interest was generated Private Bag X134 through the activity of the arachnologists. Queenswood 0121 South Africa Two post-congress tours were held, where foreign delegates were taken to the Ndumo Email: [email protected] Game Reserve in northern KwaZulu-Natal by Charles Haddad, and to Tswalu Game Reserve in the Northern Cape by Ansie Dip- Page 2 Newsletter of the African Arachnological Society 8th AFRICAN COLLOQUIUM (continued) in the organisation and running of this very successful and happy meet- ing (with the students receiving a special commendation). Argentina and Hispaniola were also represented. Invited guests, lending a Northern Hemisphere perspective to the proceedings, were Rudy Joc- que from Belgium, Dave Penney and Paul Selden from Manchester Univer- sity, and Milan Rezac and Franticek Stahlavski from Charles University in Prague. The papers presented by this group were concerned more with anatomy, taxonomy, karyology and pa- laeoarachnology than with biodiver- sity, and they thus provided balance to the programme. Araneids fea- tured specifically in 18 papers, with a contribution of the Leroys, Spider Club members and other hard- handful dealing with scorpions and working enthusiasts. pseudoscorpions, and the rest with arachnids in general. Mention must Certain non-spidery memories of Bloem will remain long in the mind - be made of Ansie Dippenaar- the generous supply of soft green peppermints, the glamour girls Schoeman's input - she was lead- from Limpopo Province (with Benson providing stiff competition with author of 4 papers and co-author of a his diamond ear-rings), Ansie and Annette relaxing in the sunshine further 10 i.e. she had a hand in 50% and gossiping with the rest of us, Dirk Kunz's prize-winning picture of of all papers presented. One has to his finger being bitten by a sparassid, Rudy's dream, Stefan going take off one's hat to the astonishing ‘deaf’ after too much playing on the water-slide, star-gazing at the proliferation of research and public historic Boyden Observatory, lunch on the terrace of the Cape Dutch interest in spiders in South Africa - gem, Oliewenhuis, the beautiful floral art at the entrance to the lec- most of it emanating from the Plant ture room, the ferocity of the ants in the Botanic Gardens, Dave Pen- Protection labs in Pretoria. Magazine ney's crowd-teasing "its true identity will be revealed later …." , and, articles, postage stamps, media pres- to crown it all, the bacchanalian 'Happy Hour' in the garden before entations, school and public lectures dinner every windy evening. have all coerced South Africans into noticing (and enjoying) spiders at last. Here one must also praise the At the colloquium dinner the following prizes were awarded: Best paper: Rudy Jocqué Best poster: Dave Penney Best student paper: Dirk Kunz Best student poster: Thembile Khoza A special award of a beautifully inscribed scroll was made to Rudy Jocqué for his contribution to arachnid research in Af- rica. This award is to become an annual Leon Lotz Charles Haddad event. Newsletter 18 Page 3 MAGNIFICENT EIGHT SPIDERS OF AFRICA In Africa the “Big five mammals” are a well known entity. At the 9th African Colloquium the arachnologists present decided to out do the mammals and to vote for the eight most magnificent spiders of Africa. Based on size, interesting behaviour and “best known” so that the public could identify them, the following spiders were voted for after lengthy discussions. Theraphosidae: Ceratogyrus Sparassidae: Palystes Salticidae: Hyllus Araneidae: Gasteracantha Thomisidae: Thomisus Oxyopidae: Peucetia “Africa to have its own “magnificent eight spiders” Poster - We are looking for good quality images for this poster. Images of any of the genera mentioned above to be submitted to Ansie— photographers will receive a free copy of this wall poster if their image is used . Pisauridae: Thalassius Tetragnathidae: NEW MEMBERS (cid:127) Dr Matjaz Kuntner, Slovenian (cid:127) Dirk Kunz, Senckenberg For- (cid:127) Dr Milan Rezak, Deptartment of Academy of Sciences and Arts, in schungsinstitut und Naturmu- Zoology, Charles University, Ljubljana Slovenia, E-mail: Kunt- seum, Senckenberganlage 25, Vinicna 7, 12844 Praha 2, Czech [email protected] 60325 Frankfurt am Main. E-mail: Republic. E-mail: [email protected] [email protected] Page 4 Newsletter of the African Arachnological Society CONGRATULATIONS Thembile Khoza for obtaining her BSc (Hons) Marianne Forsyth with the birth of her baby degree at the University of Limpopo. Her pro- boy Ethan. We hope he will be one day as good ject was a survey of spiders of Marion Island an arachnid collector as his mother. (see publication list). She is presently busy Dr Stefan Foord for obtaining his PhD degree with her MSc - a survey of the spiders of Polok- at the University of Pretoria dealing with the wane Nature Reserve. systematics of the family Hersiliidae of the Afro- Mandisa Mgobozi for obtaining her BSc (Hon) tropical Region at the University of the Transkei. Her project Ian Engelbrecht for obtaining his MSc degree was a survey of the spiders of Dwesa Forest. at WITS. She is presently busy with her MSc – the effect Mokgadi Modiba for obtaining her BSc (Hons) of chromalina, an invasive weed on spiders in degree at the University of Limpopo. Her project KwaZulu-Natal. was a survey of the spiders of Sovenga Hill (see Robin Lyle for obtaining her BSc (Hons) de- publication list). She is presently busy with her gree. She has revised the corinnid genus Thy- MSc - a survey of the spiders of Polokwane Na- sanina, and the results will be submitted for ture Reserve. publication soon. She will register for her MSc Lorenzo Prendini who is soon going to be a in 2006 and continue on the systematics of “daddy”. Afrotropical tracheline sac spiders. NEWS SNIPPETS SPIDERS IN THE NEWS NEW SPIDER PROPOSAL ON A GLOBAL Spiders were in the news in South Africa in SCALE 2005 with highlights in the papers reading: Norman Platnick “Spiders predict rain” was the main feature in A new proposal for a Planetary Biodiversity Inventories the papers and on the radio after a report by (PBI) project was submitted under leadership of Norman Astri Leroy on the rain spiders and how they Platnick. The aim of the project is to conduct a global in- predict rain in South Africa. Spiders of the family ventory of the Oonopidae of the world to produce a phy- Sparassidae of the genus Palystes are very com- logenetic classification for the estimated 2,500 species. A mon in South Africa and known to enter houses team of 24 investigators on six continents will assemble just before a rainy spell—that is the good news. and sort the specimens available in collections and acquire Unfortunately they are large (40 mm with leg new material through 12 expeditions that will concentrate span upt o 100 mm) and they cause quite a stir on securing better samples of canopy-dwelling species, as with frantic calls at night to anyone who knows well as fresh material for DNA sequencing. Team mem- anything about spiders. bers will use existing cyberinfrastructure to build Internet- “African spider craves human blood “ this accessible databases of the taxa, the published literature, one caused quite a stir after the article by specimen locality data, and images and new application Robert Jackson on the salticid Evarcha culicivora will allow team members to enter descriptive data into a in Kenya feeding on Anopheles gambiae mosqui- multi-user database, in a highly structured format that will toes engorged with human blood in Kenya. allow direct use of that information in formal descriptions for publication, on species web pages, in phylogenetic “ Spider unravels murder” – this heading ap- analyses, and in interactive keys. Automated identifica- peared in the papers after a spider of the family tion systems, using artificial neural networks, will be de- Agelenidae (Agelena sp.), also known as the veloped, and the accuracy of those systems will be com- common grass funnel-web spider, was used for pared with that achieved by workers, ranging from total the first time as forensic evidence in a court beginners to knowledgeable specialists, using interactive case in South Africa. Dr Ansie Dippenaar- keys to the same taxa. Schoeman was able to show to the High Court in To produce a maximally predictive classification, phyloge- Johannesburg that the spider, which normally netic analyses will utilize all available morphological data builds a dense permanent funnel-web in the (which will be substantial, as oonopids show numerous, grass, was disturbed when the body was placed highly unusual features of both somatic and genitalic anat- on the web, damaging it. The flimsiness of the omy), and new DNA sequence data, which will be collected “new web” made on the body of the murder vic- from multiple representatives of each of the oonopid gen- tim, was enough evidence to show that the body era and their outgroups (the three other families of dys- was in that area for a very short period of time. deroid spiders). These analyses will interface productively After the court case, the spiders received high with a currently funded spider ATOL project, enabling us media attention and several articles appeared in to provide a seamless account of both the species-level the daily papers weekly magazines, as well as diversity and the higher-level relationships of a significant radio talks and TV presentations. chunk of the tree of life. The broader impacts of the project include the training of several undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral stu- Newsletter 18 Page 5 NEWS SNIPPETS (continued) dents (with emphasis on recruiting members of ASSEMBLING THE TREE OF LIFE groups currently underrepresented in the science (AToL) workforce). International partnerships will be created Phylogeny of Spiders through the direct participation of systematists, muse- ums, and universities in at least seven countries. This multi-institution, multinational, six year project Infrastructure enhancements will include the collection seeks to propose a robust phylogeny for all spider of new specimens, the sorting and identification of families utilizing molecular, morphological and be- existing specimens, the establishment of Internet- havioural data from more than 500 exemplar spiders accessible taxon, literature, locality, image, and de- and their outgroups. During January-March 2006 scriptive databases, and the continued development Jeremy Miller and Hannah Wood will travel of an automated identification system. Project out- through Madagascar and South Africa collecting reach plans include a major traveling museum exhibi- specimens and tissues and recording behavioural tion designed to focus public attention on PBI projects observations for the AToL project. (not just our own) and on the excitement of biodiver- sity discovery. ANOTHER NEW FAMILY TO THE AFRO- The Principal Investigators are: TROPICAL REGION OR MAY BE TWO Rosemary Gillespie- University of California, Berkeley, Charles Griswold- California Academy of Sciences, Jeremy Miller one of the team members at the Cali- Gustavo Hormiga-George Washington Univ., fornia Academy of Science has discovered the first Petra Sierwald-Field Museum of Natural History, Synaphridae from Madagascar. Tharina Bird also Norman Platnick- AMNH, collected a specimen in Namibia. Senior investigators for Africa continent: Ansie Dippenaar- The Synaphridae also known as midget spiders are Schoeman (South) and Rudy Jocqué. small araneomorph spiders with three tarsal claws; ecribellate; secondary haplogyne; eight eyes; toothed cheliceral keel replacing the usual cheliceral teeth; central notch in the tibial trichobothrium base and absence of a ventral femoral patch. Rudy Jocqué reports that there might be another two new families: a possible Synotaxidae from Meg Cumming’s garden in Zimbabwe and a Mecysmaucheniidae from a can- opy fogging in Kenya. INSTITUTIONAL NEWS BELGIUM Van der Donckt) continue. Several papers are in press or in preparation. Koninklijk Museum voor Midden-Afrika, A identification manual to the ‘Spiders of the World’ Tervuren by Rudy Jocquéand Ansie Dippenaar-Schoeman is Team-leader: Dr Rudy Jocqué almost complete and will be published in 2006. Rudy visited South Africa in March 2005 to attend the The lab in Tervuren is continuing its arachnological efforts 8th African Colloquium. With Ansie and Elizabeth (his in Africa and is growing. wife) they undertook a post colloquium trip to Tswalu The canopy project in Uganda is now coming off the Game Reserve in the Northern Cape near Hotazhel. ground (both literally and figurative). See the outline by Domir De Bakker hereunder. Studying the African canopy spiders - the start of The project has also expanded with a new researcher a long story (Wouter Fannes) who started on 1st October 2005. Domir De Bakker Whereas Domir is focusing on the ecological aspects of the project, Wouter will study the taxonomy of selected taxa The study of spiders from canopies of Afrotropical from canopy samples. rainforests is now advancing. So far we have com- Rimma Seyfulina (from Moscow) is expected to join the pleted morphotyping the species from Kakamega For- team in January 2006 and will focus on African Linyphii- est (Kenya) and Budongo Forest (Uganda). Detailed dae. She will try to establish an interactive key for the statistical analysis of these data will be carried out African representatives. when confirmation by foreign experts of most of the Systematic research on the Corinnidae (Jan Bosselaers) morphospecies is established. These studies will be and Ctenidae (Mark Alderweireldt and Jean-François accompanied with the study of some smaller collec- Page 6 Newsletter of the African Arachnological Society INSTITUTIONAL NEWS (continued) tions mainly from Uganda and Kenya. Also notewor- Phyxelididae and Zoropsidae (including Griswoldia and thy is that we got in contact with persons who did Phanotea). some fogging of typical savannah trees in both Ivory Coast and Tanzania. These samples will also be Diana Silva Dávila continues her research on Mada- looked at in the future to compare with that of typi- gascar ctenid and sparassid spiders. She recently cal rainforest trees. The Tervuren Museum Arach- published a revision of the rare sparassid genus Chro- nological Team is also planning a sampling cam- sioderma. paign. In November we organized a 20-day field trip to Ghana where some trees in both primary and sec- Darrell Ubick hopes to continue his research on ondary rainforests were sampled using the pyre- Madagascar oonopid spiders. Although not relevant to thrum knockdown method (in collaboration with Dr. Africa, Darrell has also recently described the first Peter Kwapong, University of Cape Coast). Next coelotine amaurobiids with cribella and that occur in year, we plan a larger sampling effort in Congo DR western North America. (Kisangani) and Congo-Brazzaville. SLOVENIA MORE NEWS FROM AFRICA: Jean-Louis Juakalay (RD Congo) is writing up his PhD on the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Art spider fauna of Masako Forest; Benoit Nzigida- Slovenia hera is still busy with his study on the forest spiders Dr Matjaz Kuntner : Matjaz has now three nephilid of Burundi and Peter Kwapong is still busy with papers in press with some more ready for submittion. spiders in Ghana. No news from Negusu Aklilu He is now busy with nephilid molecular phylogeny, the from Ethiopia. evolution of sexual traits including epigynal plugging and the evolution of phenotypic plasticity. CALIFORNIA ZIMBABWE California Academy of Science Team leader: Dr Charles Griswold Moira Fitzpatrick at the National Museum of Zim- babwe is busy publishing data from her PhD thesis on Hannah Wood is completing her MSc at San Fran- the genus Zelotes of the Afrotropical Region. She is cisco State University (SFSU). This is a revision and also busy with surveys in Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe has a phylogenetic analysis of assassin spiders the gracili- rich spider fauna although there are only 202 species collis group of Eriauchenius (Archaeidae). She de- formally recognised as occurring in this country. Many scribes 14 species, of the habitat types that occur in Zimbabwe, such as 9 new, based significantly on new material derived Mopane, Dry Miombo, Acacia/Combretum and from the CAS biodiversity survey of Madagascar. A Afromontane are representative of habitats found phylogeny based upon molecular and morphological mainly north of the Zambezi River. The arachnid col- data supports the monophyly of the gracilicollis lection of the Natural History Museum, Bulawayo, with group, identifies distinct eastern and western clades over 200 000 spider specimens, covers much of Zim- within Madagascar, and suggests that the extremely babwe. elongate cephalothoracic “neck” has arisen in parallel at least twice within Meg Cumming: “The problems of life in Zimbabwe Archaeidae. Her research will take her to Madagas- finally overshadowed arachnological activities this car and South Africa during December 2005 to March year. Nor have spiders themselves had a vintage 2006. season, due to a biting drought which decimated in- sect populations. The Colloquium in Bloemfontein was Daniela Andriamalala continues with her MSc at the highlight of the year but it was mostly downhill SFSU studying Madagascar jumping spiders. She is from there. Spider activities centred on collating data revising the balline genus Padilla. There may be and collecting spiders, although travel around the more than 12 species in Madagascar. She will inves- country was impossible due to the non-availability of tigate the evolution of and possible convergence in fuel. I tried to mop up previously uncollected species male secondary sexual characters, courtship behav- in my garden, concentrating on very small spiders and iors, and lifestyles in these spiders. on nocturnal species. With Tony Russell-Smith I am planning to bring out a paper on spiders in a one- Jeremy Miller has joined CAS as the Schlinger hectare Harare garden next year, while Wanda Weso- Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow in Entomology. He is lowska and Meg continue to collaborate on the salti- working on a world revision and phylogenetic analy- cids in the same garden. I am also busy with training sis of the widow spiders Latrodectus (Theridiidae). and gave a well-attended spider lecture in Harare”. This research will take him to Madagascar and South Africa during January to March of 2006. Jeremy is LESOTHO also studying Madagascar spiders and has already discovered the first Synaphridae from Madagascar. Charles Haddad reports: As part of the African Arachnid Database (AFRAD) projects, checklists of the Charles Griswold continues work on Madagascar arachnid faunas of various countries are being pre- phyxelidid spiders and has also coauthored a study pared. Lesotho is one of the smallest countries in of the morphology and phylogeny of entelegyne spi- Africa, with a surface area of approximately 30 300 ders. This study features African exemplars of the square km, and is landlocked along all its borders with Oecobiidae, Eresidae, Phyxelididae, Deinopidae, and South Africa. About one quarter in the west is lowland Desidae. He is also still working on Cyatholipidae, Newsletter 18 Page 7 INSTITUTIONAL NEWS (continued) country, varying in height from 1500 to 1600 m ourable Prime Minister Nahas Angula in celebration of a.s.l., while the remaining three quarters form the its development under the Joint Venture Agreement highlands, ranging between 2000 and 3400 m a.s.l. between the Ministry of Environment & Tourism and Until now, very little was known of the arachnid the Desert Research Foundation of Namibia. This diversity, except for sparse records in taxonomic strengthens Gobabeb’s role to support research, and papers. Two intensive surveys were conducted in arachnologists are welcome to make use of this op- Southern Lesotho” (CMBSL, November 2003) re- portunity. cently, to determine the arachnid fauna associated with islands and the catchment area of the Mohale SOUTH AFRICA Dam (MD) in central Lesotho (March and December ARC-SPIDER RESEARCH CENTRE 2003), and of mountains in southern Lesotho for the project “Conserving Mountain Biodiversity. Team leader: Dr Ansie Dippenaar-Schoeman Sampling was carried out primarily by rock turning The ARC team this year consisted of Ansie, Annette and sweep-netting, with beats and leaf litter van den Berg, Almie van den Berg (in part), Elizabeth searching, where possible. A total of 240 species of Kassimatis and Connie Anderson. Ian Engelbrecht spiders (40 families) are now known from Lesotho, joined the team for the last six months of 2005 to including 109 spp. from 31 families from MD, 152 work on the scorpions in the collection. spp. from 34 families (CMBSL), and 100 spp. from 34 families (ARC – PPRI database). Opiliones are TAXONOMIC RESEARCH: Ansie continues her work represented by 7 species in two families, Pseudo- on the systematics and ecology of Afrotropical scorpiones by 5 species (1 family) and Scorpiones Thomisidae. Several short papers on the genera by a single species, Opistacanthus validus Felsina, Hewittia and Cynathea are in progress. The (Scorpionidae). It is likely that a large number of first papers on the thomisids of Yemen will be pub- additional records will be known following comple- lished in the Fauna of Arabiain 2006 . An identification tion of the biodiversity surveys that form part of manual on the Thomisidae of Southern Africa is pro- the Maluti-Drakensberg Transfrontier Park project. gressing slowly. She was also involved in the descrip- Additional material from western Lesotho collected tion of a new bolas spider Cladomelea debeeri and by Gregorz Kopij previously a staff member of the revision of genera of the hersiliids with Stefan Foord. National University of Lesotho will also add to the knowledge of the arachnid diversity of the country. IDENTIFICATION SERVICES: A total of 5600 spi- ders were identified for 23 clients which included: the SWAZILAND Universities of Venda, Limpopo; Pretoria; Free State, KwaZulu-Natal and Transkei.; the Gauteng Nature Ansie Dippenaar-Schoeman reports: From the Conservation and ARC projects. A total of 65 identifi- AFRAD database 22 species of spiders are presently cations were done for the public. known from Swaziland. A collection of unidentified material still need to be sorted. NATIONAL COLLECTION: Time were spend to clean the data while upgrading the present ACCESS data- NAMIBIA base to a MYSQL database. New entries for the year 2005 reached a record number of 2500 accessions Gobabeb Training and Research Centre adding on average 10 000 new specimens to the col- Team leader: Dr Joh Henschel lection. Gobabeb has continued to support arachnological STUDENTS: Ansie was involved in training and men- research in Namibia. Our resident spiderman, Tho- toring several students from the Universities of Venda, mas Nørgaard, completed his fieldwork on the Limpopo, Pretoria, Transkei and the Free State. long-distance navigation and orientation of the Dancing White Lady spider Leucorchestris arenicola. COLLECTING TRIPS: Four collecting trips to Tswalu Thomas is now busy at the University of Zürich Game Reserve in the Northern Cape, Acacia Lodge churning out papers that will contribute to his PhD near Thabazimbi, Ezemvelo near Bronkhorstpruit and thesis. Tharina Bird from the National Museum of Thanda Game Reserve in KwaZulu-Natal were under- Namibia completed a year of pitfall trapping solifu- taken by Ansie while Ian Engelbrecht visited the gids near Gobabeb and is now analyzing these Kruger National Park in October to collect specimens data. Fieldwork was also completed on Stegody- as part of the KNP arachnid project. phus dumicola near Windhoek by Trine Bilde of the University of Åarhus, Denmark, and Yael Lubin SURVEYS: The survey of the spiders of Swartberg of Sde Boqer, Israel, and several of their students Nature reserve has been published as well as an arti- and assistants. Gobabeb provided guidance to cle on the spiders from avocado orchards. Surveys of Greta Binford in her study of the systematics of the fauna of Lesotho, Swaziland, Helsgate (KwaZulu- the Sicariidae. In the previous summer Gobabeb Natal), Tswalu Game Reserve, Ndumo Game Reserve completed the 17th year of long-term population and Tembe Nature Reserve continue. Other projects studies of the corolla spider, Ariadna crf masculina, such as spiders from genetically manupulated crops the spoor spider, Seothyra henscheli, and the danc- like Bt maize and cotton are underway or have been ing white-lady spider, Leucorchestris arenicola. completed. (see publication and SANSA). The Gobabeb Training & Research Centre was offi- cially inaugurated in May 2005 by the Right Hon- DATABASES: A lot of data have been entered into the African Arachnida Database (AFRAD) and the Page 8 Newsletter of the African Arachnological Society INSTITUTIONAL NEWS (continued) South African National Survey of Arachnida databases. inventory of spider species at the study site taking A proposal have been submitted via the South African different habitats into account (low or dense vegeta- Biodiversity Information Facility to obtain funds to tion, rocky or sandy-loamy substrate etc.). employ personnel to help to enter data. The aim of BIOTA Southern Africa (www.biota- SPIDER EDUCARE PROGRANMME: A total of 23 africa.org) is to assess and monitor the impact of talks;8 lectures, 3 courses, 21 radio talks and 5 TV land-use and global climate change on biodiversity presentations have been given this year. along a climatic gradient from the Cape (high winter rainfall) to the Kavango (high summer rainfall) cov- VISITORS: We received visitors from Germany (Dirk ering semi-arid and arid winter and summer rainfall Kunz), Belgium (Rudy); UK (David Penney and Paul areas. The monitoring is conducted on standardised Selden) and USA (Arthur Chapman). study sites of 1x1 km² in size, so called Biodiversity Observatories. Eleven different subprojects cover various different SOUTH AFRICA—BIOTA disciplines in this study (i.e., remote sensing; soil science; mycology; botany: phycology, lichenology, seed plants; zoology: ants, termites, beetles, drag- An assessment of spider diversity in Soebatsfontein onflies, pollinators, small mammals; socio-economy (Northern Cape Province) - A contribution to the un- and modelling). derstanding of the distribution and ecology of spiders in South Africa Dr Ute Schmiedel1 & Reginald A. Christiaan2 In October 2004 BIOTA Southern Africa employed 1 BIOTA Southern Africa, Biocentre Klein Flottbek and and started to train eight para-ecologists. Those are members of rural land-user communities in the vi- Botanical Garden, University of Hamburg, Ohnhorst- cinity of the BIOTA Biodiversity Observatories. The strasse 18, D-22609 Hamburg, Germany, para-ecologists work with the researchers in the [email protected] 2 Para-Ecologist, P.O. Box 50, Soebatsfontein 8257, field, conduct monthly or weekly observations and measurements (e.g., on plant phenology, insect South Africa trapping) during the absence of the researchers but The interdisciplinary and international biodiversity may also fill some gaps with respect to the assess- research project BIOTA Southern Africa initiated an ment of different organism groups. The spider pro- assessment and ecological study of spiders at Soe- ject in Soebatsfontein is one example of how para- batsfontein in the western Namaqualand (Northern ecologists are initiating their own biodiversity project Cape Province, South Africa). The project aims at an within the frame of BIOTA Southern Africa. The Ansie with students attending the course at Ezemvelo. Newsletter 18 Page 9 INSTITUTIONAL NEWS SOUTH AFRICA para-ecologist R.A. Christiaan will conduct the GAUTENG NATURE CONSERVATION practical part of the study supervised by spe- Marianne Forsyth cialists (Dr. A. Dippenaar-Schoeman, Dr. Joh Henschel). Gauteng Nature Conservation of the Gauteng Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Environment (GDACE) The following trapping methods will be applied initiated the Biodiversity GAP analysis project (BGAP Pro- on a monthly base: a) Pitfall traps set out at ject) in June 2001. This project was initiated n response to four different vegetation types of the BIOTA the need for the identification and mapping of priority areas Biodiversity Observatory at Soebatsfontein, in the province where development, habitat transformation separated into diurnal and nocturnal trapping, and fragmentation should be discouraged, and conservation b) Sampling of plant-dwelling spiders and c) efforts should be focused. The BGAP project objective is to selective collection of web-dwelling spiders. produce a GIS-based biodiversity database compiled by The spiders will be sorted and preliminarily overlaying spatial information on each of the major groups identified by R.A. Christiaan, sent over to the of fauna and flora and other important biodiversity compo- Plant Protection Research Institute of the Agri- nents. culture Research Council in Pretoria where they Methods involve collation of all existing information from will be finally identified and hosted in the Na- museums and herbaria, networking with external experts, tional Collection of Arachnida. literature surveys to establish appropriate methods, field surveying, field monitoring of biodiversity, data analysis The resulting data on diversity and composition and interpretation. Within the BGAP Project, arachnids of spider species during the course of the year have been identified as a priority group for conservation and within different habitat types shall be re- efforts and they have been included in the conservation lated to other monitoring data such as weather planning exercise to date. data (of the automatic weather station at the Vuyo Mpumlwana is the new technician that was ap- site), the phenology of plants and humidity of pointed to the Invertebrate programme at GNC—welcome soil which are also gathered on a monthly base Vuyo (ed). as well as to the annually assessed information on plant species composition on the BIOTA NEWS FLASH……. Biodiversity Observatory. Beyond this, the sur- Marianne decided to resign from her full timer job at GNC vey will provide valuable information to the the end of this month BUT she will continue from home to South African National Survey of Arachnida coordinate the project until they appoint somebody (SANSA). Besides the scientific interest in the study, the KWAZULU-NATAL study will also have an important educational aspect. Since the practical parts of the study There are several surveys presently undertaken in KZN by will be conducted by a member of the Soebats- students of the University of KwaZulu-Natal, University of fontein community. He will also participate in the Free State, University of Transkei,the ARC-Spider Cen- educating the people in the village. Questions tre and the Spider Club (see SANSA). like what kind of spiders occur in the area, Sue van Rensburg, chief scientific officer at Hluhluwe Game where and how do they live, what role they Reserve, is interested to organize a comprehensive collec- play in the ecosystem and whether or not they tion of arachnids in the park, provisionally during April are harmful to humans can be answered. As 2006. Anybody who is interested to join this, can contact part of his job as para-ecologist, R.A. Chris- her at [email protected] tiaan will integrate the gathered information into the environmental education at the local Primary School. NATIONAL MUSEUM, BLOEMFONTEIN Leon Lotz Leon is presently busy with the following projects: the Afro- tropical genera Cheiracanthium and Cheiramiona (Araneae: Miturgidae); the Afrotropical family Archaeidae (Araneae); the scorpions (Arachnida) of the Free State Province, South Africa; the Afrotropical genera of the family Sicariidae (Araneae); the spiders (Araneae) of the Free State Prov- ince, South Africa; invertebrates of the National Botanical Garden, Bloemfontein, Free State Province, South Africa. A co-project with the Entomology Department of the National Museum. He is also involved in the identification of spiders, scorpions and opilionids for the following projects that are not run by the Arachnology Department: Patterns in the soil composi- Soebatsfontein and its flowers in spring tion and structure, recovery of vegetation, and changes in mite, insect, spider and small mammal communities after fire in a grassland ecosystem, Erfenisdam Nature Reserve, Free State Province. Page 10 Newsletter of the African Arachnological Society INSTITUTIONAL NEWS SOUTH AFRICA An assessment and ecological interpretation of the the club on the up and up we look forward to what terrestrial invertebrate fauna in the South African 2006 will hold… portion of the Maloti-Drakensberg bioregion. Publications in review or nearing completion: Part 2: Astri and John Leroy A new species of Cheiramiona (Araneae: Miturgidae) from Namibia. SPIDERS IN A BUTTERFLY RESERVE The distribution of harvestman (Arachnida: Opil- The Ruimsig Butterfly Reserve was proclaimed to pre- iones) in southern Africa - a review. serve the habitat of a Red Data species butterfly so I Afrotropical Archaeidae (Araneae): 3. The female of hope the spiders don't cause its extinction! Anyway, in Archaea cornutus and a new species of Afrarchaea collaboration with Gauteng Nature Conservation of the (Arachnida: (Araneae). Gauteng Department of Agriculture, Conservation and The scorpions (Arachnida) of the Free State Prov- Environment (GDACE) the survey of the Ruimsig But- ince, South Africa. terfly Reserve, in Roodepoort continues. Astri is col- The Afrotropical species of the genus Cheiracanthium lecting all invertebrates for GDACE but personally con- (Araneae: Miturgidae). centrating on arachnids. So far the most interesting specimens are a juvenile Pycnacantha tribulis photo- graphed but not collected last summer and recently SPIDER CLUB OF SOUTHERN AFRICA some strange, tiny, male mygalomorphs. Part 1: Ian Engelbrecht CAVE INVERTEBRATES Also with GDACE but under the auspices of the cave The Spider Club has enjoyed a very exciting and specialist group Astri is collecting invertebrates from eventful 2005. In 2004 the decision was taken that caves and karst in The Cradle of Humankind, Gauteng. the club should start directing its activities to making There are more than 2000 caves in the Province so it a contribution to arachnid science and conservation may take a while! The cave specialist group plans to in South Africa while at the same time allowing its make comparisons between pristine and exploited members the chance to grow and develop their in- caves. terest while still having a lot of fun. And that is just BOTANICAL SOCIETY the way things have been going. John and Astri take members of the public on "spider In March the club ran a field outing to Pilanesberg walks" in the Walter Sisulu National Botanical Garden National Park, a resounding success! We were and the Lowveld National Botanical Gardens to raise hosted like royalty, being spoilt with game drives in funds for The Botanical Society. open top game viewing vehicles and escorted by two TRAINING COURSES very knowledgeable young game wardens. We man- The Leroys present spiders and the lesser known aged to turn up almost 75 arachnid species for the arachnids (excluding ticks and scorpions) to various reserve, including some very interesting new finds. field-guide training organisations and other interested A great time was had by all. groups. We helped with the identification course at In April we visited the Weenen and Spioenkop Na- the University of the Witwatersrand on 2nd & 3rd May ture Reserves in KwaZulu-Natal. While this trip was- and gave two labs to the 2nd year B.Sc. students at n’t as well attended we still turned up some fascinat- the University of Limpopo on 26th of August. I don't ing creatures, including prickly tailed rock scorpions know about the students but it was a huge learning and a stunningly beautiful Platythomisus crab spider. curve for us and a little nerve racking because other This was a real rustic style camping weekend, but students rioted that day! the camp site at Stony Ridge, just outside Weenen PUBLICATION Game Reserve, was unanimously voted one of the A short communication "Notes on the natural history of most beautiful the Spider Club has visited yet! a trapdoor spider Ancylotrypa Simon (Araneae, Cyr- taucheniidae) that constructs a spherical burrow plug" May saw us try a new approach to presenting a spi- has been accepted by the Journal of Arachnology for der identification course – student style! Wits Uni- the Ghent congress issue. versity hosted the course in their Life Sciences Mu- seum, the perfect venue with microscopes, reference UNIVERSITY OF FORT HARE books and teaching facilities aplenty. The course was presented by Astri and John Leroy, Caroline Team leader: Jacques van Heerden Crump and Ian Engelbrecht. The first day involved getting to know the creatures a little better, working Jacques has been collecting pseudoscorpions for the through keys and examining specimens under the last seven years, particularly in rocky habitats in the microscopes. Eastern Cape and Free State. Natasha Nondula a There was even a quiz session afterwards where MSc student started with her MSc last year and is people got the chance to test out their new ‘IDing’ working on aspects of the distribution, ecology and skills. The next day we went out to Melville Koppies micro-anatomy of the genus Horus, of the family Olpii- Nature Reserve to see where spiders live and what dae, which is found inter alia in mudstone and sand- they do. This course was a great success, and we stone cracks in the Beaufort, Ecca and Dwyka. We got many keen new members from it. have now also located the genus under banded iron- Our June AGM saw a new constitution, a new code of stone rocks in the Prieska district and have recently ethics and a new committee for the club. Afterwards collected specimens in Hluhluwe Game Reserve in Zu- and in celebration of the clubs’ 30th birthday we luland. Specimens from eleven localities have been were treated to a lamb on the spit courtesy of one of sent for DNA analysis and we are awaiting the results. our members, and a great time was had by all. With With the aid of Johan (J.C.) Loock, of the Geology De-