AAususttrraalaassiianan AArracachhnnoollogyogy Price$3 Number7376 ISSN0811-3696 January200607 Newsletterof NewsletteroftheAustralasianArachnologicalSociety Australasian Arachnology No. 76 Page 2 THE AUSTRALASIAN ARTICLES ARACHNOLOGICAL The newsletter depends on your SOCIETY contributions! We encourage articles on a We aim to promote interest in the range of topics including current research ecology, behaviour and taxonomy of activities, student projects, upcoming arachnids of the Australasian region. events or behavioural observations. MEMBERSHIP Please send articles to the editor: Membership is open to amateurs, Volker Framenau students and professionals and is managed Department of Terrestrial Invertebrates by our administrator: Western Australian Museum Locked Bag 49 Richard J. Faulder Welshpool, W.A. 6986, Australia. Agricultural Institute [email protected] Yanco, New South Wales 2703. Australia Format: i) typed or legibly printed on A4 [email protected] paper or ii) as text or MS Word file on CD, Membership fees in Australian dollars 3½ floppy disk, or via email. (per 4 issues): LIBRARY *discount personal institutional Australia $8 $10 $12 The AAS has a large number of NZ / Asia $10 $12 $14 reference books, scientific journals and elsewhere $12 $14 $16 papers available for loan or as photocopies, for those members who do There is no agency discount. not have access to a scientific library. All postage is by airmail. Professional members are encouraged to *Discount rates apply to unemployed, pensioners and students (please provide proof of status). send in their arachnological reprints. Cheques are payable in Australian Contact our librarian: dollars to “Australasian Arachnological Society”. Any number of issues can be paid Jean-Claude Herremans PO Box 291 for in advance. Receipts issued on request. Manly, New South Wales 1655. Members will receive a PDF-version of Australia Australasian Arachnology (hardcopies for email: [email protected] long-standing individual members, libraries and societies in exchange). Members will be notified by mail and/or email when their subscription has expired. COVER ILLUSTRATION: Protogarypinus giganteus from Two Peoples Previous issues of the newsletter are Bay, Western Australia. available at www.australasian- Photo by Melinda Moir (det. Mark Harvey) arachnology.org/newsletter/issues. Australasian Arachnology No. 76 Page 3 EDITORIAL MEMBERSHIP UPDATES My apologies again for a belated issue 76 New Members (January instead of December), but I was visiting the Queensland Museum during Margaret Owen most of last month making editing this 86 Dalgleish St issue somewhat difficult. Wembley, WA 6014 [email protected] Australasian Arachnology 76 features a comprehensive update on the taxonomy Change of Address and systematics of jumping spiders of Australia by Marek Zabka. Thanks a lot for Karl Brennan this interesting contribution! Western Australian Department of Environment and Conservation It is great to see some arachnological PO Box 10173 student activities in Australasia. This issue Kalgoorlie, WA 6430 contains two theses abstracts: one by Sara [email protected] Ceccarelli (on ants and jumping spiders) and one by Adam Peck (on tree trunk Melinda Moir spider assemblages). Congratulations for Department of Terrestrial Invertebrates your great achievements and I hope you Western Australian Museum will stick to arachnids in your future Locked Bag 49 professional careers. Welshpool DC, WA 6986 [email protected] From this year, Australasian Arachnology will only be available as PDF-version for new individual members. This is to reduce ---------------------------- printing and postal costs, and to avoid excessive use of paper. We will continue to LIBRARY provide printed issues for long-standing UPDATE members, some of which received Australasian Arachnology from the first issue. But beware, don’t lapse your Our librarian Jean-Claude Herremans membership, otherwise you will be treated received reprints of publications from as a new member with PDF access only! Helen Smith. Thanks Helen! Of course, libraries and societies will still All our members should consider receive the printed version, most of which donating reprints of their publications to receive the newsletter in exchange for their our library, which is an important source printed products. of information for our members without Cheers and all the best for 2007, access to a professional library! Volker I will include an updated list of our library holdings in the next newsletter! Australasian Arachnology No. 76 Page 4 species described in this work are well th 17 International Congress of documented and recognisable with the Arachnology original illustrations. Modern taxonomic studies of São Pedro, São Paulo (Brazil) Australian Salticidae emerged 35 years ago. Proszynski (1971) catalogued salticid 5-10 August 2007 type material from major collections http://www.ib.usp.br/~ricrocha/ISA17/ISA.htm worldwide and verified the generic status of some of the species. The same author produced a two-volume atlas of diagnostic drawings (Proszynski 1984, 1987) and a catalogue (Proszynski 1990), all three of them eventually amalgamated into an online world catalogue of the Salticidae (Proszynski 2003). Davies and Zabka (1989) published a key to the 50 Australian genera of Salticidae with diagnoses and remarks on some species of uncertain taxonomic status. The interactive CD-Rom Spiders of Australia by Raven et al. (2002) was one of the latest contributions to include jumping spiders. In the last 20 years nearly 140 new Jumping spider (Araneae, species and 14 genera were described (see Richardson and Zabka 2003; Salticidae) taxonomy and bibliography below), most of them by biogeography in Australia: myself (9 genera and 109 species) and by current state and future F.R. Wanless (4 genera and 25 species). prospects Thus, the current list of Australian jumping spiders comprises 355 species in 76 Marek Zabka, Academy of Podlasie, genera (8 of which are doubtful) Siedlce, Poland, email: (Richardson & Zabka 2003; Zabka, [email protected] unpublished data). These numbers, however, are far from complete. Recent The history of Australian jumping field research and a review of major spider (Salticidae) research started in the th Australian collections suggest an estimate mid 19 century and resulted in a number of close to a thousand species (Zabka, of papers, most of them by Karsch, C.L. unpublished data). This estimate is based Koch, L. Koch, Keyserling, Simon and on pre-and post-revision species numbers Thorell. Of the early works (for a complete of some better-studied genera, for listing see Roewer (1955) and Bonnet example Holoplatys (7 and 37 species (1955-1959)), the monumental Die respectively) (Zabka 1991). Similar Arachniden Australiens by L. Koch (1871- numbers were confirmed for the Astieae 1881) and Keyserling (1881-1890) (Wanless 1988), Lycidas (Zabka 1987), deserves special mention. Most of the 168 Australasian Arachnology No. 76 Page 5 Simaetha (Zabka 1994), Ocrisiona (Zabka group (currently 17 species), while B. 1990) and Afraflacilla (Zabka 1993b). Richardson’s (CSIRO, Canberra) taxonomic studies focus on revisions of Recent major advances in salticid Prostheclina (in collaboration with myself) taxonomy in Australia were made possible and Servaea. Michael Rix (Western by comprehensive biodiversity surveys Australian Museum, Perth) described the conducted in particular by the Australian monotypic genus Judalana and some Museum (Sydney), the Queensland follow-up projects in collaboration with Museum (Brisbane) and the Western myself are currently being undertaken Australian Museum (Perth). These [Editors comment: Sara Ceccarelli revised surveys resulted in copious and diverse some species of the ant-mimicing genus material, mostly collected by pitfall Myrmarachne as part of her Ph.D. trapping (a method not applied by early studies, see abstract on page 11]. collectors). Some previously unknown or rare genera such as Tauala, Sondra, Taxonomic research on Salticidae Pseudosynagelides, Zebraplatys and suffers from difficulties in relation to the Paraplatoides proved quite common. Not uniformity and simplicity of the genitalia surprisingly, the richest taxonomic data and large intraspecific variation in are available for areas near major centres morphological characters. Wayne of arachnological research and those Maddison (University of British Columbia, areas subject to their research activities Vancouver) and co-workers showed that (Richardson et al. 2006). In contrast, some systematic problems, mostly at the some inland areas and most parts of family and genus level, could be solved topical Western Australia and the employing molecular techniques Northern Territory are still extremely (Maddison 1996, Hedin and Maddison poorly studied. 2001, Maddison and Hedin 2003). Few scientific institutions currently Modern biogeographical research that conduct taxonomic projects on Australian included Australian salticids was initiated Salticidae. Barbara Patoleta, J. by Main (1981a, 1981b, 1982). Gardzinska and myself work on the Subsequent analyses based on more genera Opisthoncus (some 30 species), complete data sets (including adjacent Cosmophasis (more than 20 new species areas such as New Guinea, Fiji, New from Australia alone), Cytaea and on the Caledonia, and New Zealand) were subfamily Dioleninae at the Academy of presented by Zabka (1990, 1991, 1993a), Podlasie (Siedlce, Poland). Our research