1 SANSA NEWS South African National Survey of Arachnida Newsletter Date No 28 JAN APRIL 2017 FEEDBACK ON THE Inside this issue: 12 AFRAS COLLOQUIUM Feedback AFRAS colloquium …..1-2 22-25 January 2017 SANSA 20 years ………...................3 Medically important spiders..……….4 Spiders in and around the house…..5 University of the Free State…………6 University of Venda………………….7 ARC-PPR………...………………......8 National Mus of the Free State …….9 New genera…………………..……..10 Field observations Q and A…........ 11 Student project……………………...12 Soil paper…………………………...13 Recent publications……………......14 Last Word……………………….......15 NATIONAL SPIDER SPECIES COUNT JANUARY 2015 — 2171 species JUNE 2015 — 2192 species OCTOBER 2015 — 2220 species MAY 2016 — 2234 species DECEMBER 2016 — 2239 species APRIL 2017 — 2243 species Delegates at the colloquium The 12th AFRAS colloquium was hosted by the University of the Free State and the ARC. It was held at the Goudini Spa in the Worcester district, Western Cape, South Africa. The objectives of these Colloquia are to promote research on the African Arachnida (non-Acari) and to provide a fo- rum for the discussion of research on African arachnids in oral presentations, posters and work- Editors and coordinators: shops, as well as informal discussions. Ansie Dippenaar-Schoeman & A total of 40 delegates and five accompanying persons attended the colloquium, from as far afield Robin Lyle as Belgium, Israel, Russia, Czech Republic, Nigeria, Sudan, Zimbabwe, UK and USA. ARC-Plant Protection Research Private Bag X134 37 papers and 17 posters were presented during the colloquium Queenswood 0121 Two workshops were held, organized by Dr Ansie Dippenaar-Schoeman on the South African South Africa National Survey of Arachnida (SANSA), and by Dr Gerbus Muller on medically important spiders E-mail:
[email protected] We also celebrated the 20th year of SANSA and 30th year of AFRAS.