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AUSTRALASIAN ARACHNOLOGY Newsletter of the Australasian Arachnological Society No. 89 Winter 2020 $5.00 2012 interview with Norman Platnick page 10 Colour and movement page 23 Mighty mites page 12 West to East page 5 Thomisids page 28 AUSTRALASIAN ARACHNOLOGICAL SOCIETY Australasian Arachnology 89 The aim of the Australasian Arachnological Society is to Editorial Contents promote interest in the ecology, Robert Whyte and Helen Smith An ancient connection across the Pacific behaviour and taxonomy of Darko Cotoras .............................................................................................4 “An Australian arachnids of the Australasian ne particularly sad incident for our Walking sideways region. scientific community since the last Jim Hackett .................................................................................................. 8 botanist took me Membership of A$20 covers Australasian Arachnology was the untimely Interview from 2012: Norman Platnick to Springbrook four issues of Australasian O on the history of the World Spider Catalog Arachnology. ISSN 0811-3696, passing of Norman Platnick in April 2020 at the Norman Platnick interview by Robert Raven .................................................................. 10 1951-2020 see Robert National Park, where scheduled to appear three tender age of 68. MITES on Insects the other other 99% times a year. Previous issues are Norm leaves a huge legacy of work relevant to Raven’s interview with Owen Seeman ......................................................................................... 12 he showed me the available to members at the www. our region and contributed over 500 taxonomic Norm on page 19 Colour and movement australasianarachnologicalsociety. contrast between the lowlands with names of Australian genera and species. and Tracey Churchill’s Robert Whyte ............................................................................................ 23 org via their login. Back issues personal memoir on sub-tropical Asian and Gondwanic are available to non members 12 His death was announced in the NY Times with Spider Artistry page 54. months after publication date. the article www.nytimes.com/2020/04/17/science/ Renata Wright .......................................................................................... 24 elements and the cool temperate Two common overlapping Argiope spp. Contributions are welcome. Please earth/norman-platnick-the-real-spider-man-is-dead-at-68.html. The with ventral views for identification Gondwanic dominated forest at send articles to newsletter@ American Natural History Museum ran the official obituary, stating Graham Winterflood ............................................................................ 26 australasianarachnologicalsociety. “it is with much sadness that we mourn the passing of Dr. Norman highlands. While the other visitors org Thomisids of Wingham I. Platnick, Curator Emeritus.” Steve Woodman ..................................................................................... 28 were amazed with the view for Cover photo Cosmophasis darwini With more sadness and yet celebration of a life well lived we You must be Jotusing by Robert Whyte see Colour and “Best of All lookout”, I could not include a Tribute to Dr Barbara York Main: Robert Whyte ............................................................................................ 33 movement page 23 arachnologist and nature writer by Leanda Mason Bungendore Park WA stop looking at the Antarctic Beech and Patricia L. Kennedy (see page 50). David & Fleur Knowles .......................................................................... 34 (Nothofagus moorei). The impression Below, Australasian We are heartened to see a jam-packed newsletter A new Australian subfamily of garden orb-weavers Arachnological Society members Pedro Castanheira & Volker W. Framenau .................................. 36 with a huge range of topics, locations and this forest had on me was strong with other attendees at the My dream of visiting every pile of rocks in Australia joint ento-arachno-systematics authors. We hope to enthuse our members to Sarah Crews .............................................................................................. 38 enough to rival that view and its conference in Brisbane in Barbara York Main submit even more features and news items for Huntsman subdued and dragged off December 2019. Owen Seeman 1929-2019, tribute bold name, which is, by the way, future editions. Until next time, we wish our Brian Jenkins ............................................................................................. 40 delivered the AAS keynote members all the best for success in science. page 50. very well deserved.” address see page12. Heteropoda records sought for Sydney Region Helen Smith ............................................................................................... 41 — Darko Cotoras Two stunning Bellawongarah spiders Lincoln Macgregor .................................................................................. 42 Searching for and finding Periegops News Greg Anderson ......................................................................................... 44 Mark Harvey has passed on a newly published paper News on mygalomorph phylogeny using genomic data. The Compiled by the editors ....................................................................... 45 study results in several family-level taxonomic changes Tribute to Dr Barbara York Main to the classification of the Australian fauna, including: Leanda Mason and Patricia Kennedy ........................................... 50 Stanwellia: from Nemesiidae to Pycnothelidae. Aname, Introducing Ecoconnections Chenistonia, Hesperonatalius, Kwonkan, Namea, Duncan Farquhar ................................................................................... 52 Proshermacha, Teyl & Teyloides: from Nemesiidae to Remembering Norm – Dr Norman Platnick Tracey Churchill ....................................................................................... 54 Anamidae. Cethegus, Australothele and relatives: from Dipluridae to Euagridae. Ixamatus, Xamiatus and Kiama: to Microstigmatidae. Some other changes have been made in earlier papers, including: Atrax & Heteropoda records sought relatives: to Atracidae and Conothele: from Ctenizidae to for Sydney Region see page 41 Ventral view of Halonoproctidae. Sydney’s native Huntsman Heteropoda longipes. Have you seen one? Tell Helen. 2 3 AUSTRALASIAN ARACHNOLOGICAL SOCIETY Australasian Arachnology 89 ne day I was working at the Museo Nacional de Historia Natural in OSantiago, Chile. I was having a hard time identifying some strange beetles. At some point, I asked the curator for some guidance. He looked at me and said: “I will bring you the Bible”. He quickly walked away and came back with a large green book titled The Insects of Australia. I realized that he was joking about the Bible and probably I did not mention that the samples were from Chile. After indicating the origin of the specimens, the curator insisted and said: “Yes, they are from Chile, but at a high taxonomic level this book is, perhaps, one of the best resources for Chilean insects as well as Australian ones.” Nothofagus forests. Left Antarctic Beech (Nothofagus moorei) at Springbrook National Park. Queensland, An ancient Australia. Right Coigüe de Magallanes (Nothofagus betuloides) and Lenga (Nothofagus pumilio) forest at Cerro connection Bandera. Isla Navarino, Chile. Darko D. Cotoras California Academy across the Pacific of Sciences 4 5 AUSTRALASIAN ARACHNOLOGICAL SOCIETY Australasian Arachnology 89 I knew about the Gondwanic connections continent. Australia and New Zealand and one in Chile enough to rival with that view and its bold between South America and Australia. It is true that there are many connections and Argentina (Chilenodes). The subfamily name, which is, by the way, very well deserved. However, the incident with the book made between the forests in Chile and the rest of the Micropholcommatinae within Anapidae has This distant connection has been the focus me think about how much this biological Neotropics, such as the Podocarpus conifers, species in Chile, Brazil, Australia and New of a large amount of research, but probably connection is present in our collective which are also present in the Yungas of Perú, Zealand. The superfamily Archaeoidea includes has not yet permeated into our collective unconscious. I am saying this because the Bolivia and Argentina, or the Drymis trees with several families all of them with Gondwanic unconscious of the biological identity of where second after the curator started his explanation a disjoint distribution with the Mata Atlántica distribution. In particular, Mecysmaucheniidae we live. This ancient connection will greatly my rational mind kicked in and I understood from Brazil. with species in New Zealand, Chile and illustrate important concepts of deep time, the reason. But, there is also a large number of taxa Argentina. Finally, the mygalomorph genus geologic processes and evolution. Giving us a I am sure if he had brought a book about shared with Australia and New Zealand: Missulena (Actinopodidae) has one species in notion of how the austral continents from the insects of Latin America, I would have not Nothofagus, Eucryphia, Araucariaceae and Chile and 17 in Australia. In general, most of Pacific were once connected and today more been confused. But this book would have Berberidopsidales trees,
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