Australasian Arachnology 86 Page 1 THE AUSTRALASIAN ARACHNOLOGICAL Australasian Arachnology 86 Page 2 THE AUSTRALASIAN ARTICLES ARACHNOLOGICAL SOCIETY The newsletter Australasian Arachnology depends on the contributions of members. www.australasian-arachnology.org Please send articles to the Editor: Acari – Araneae – Amblypygi – Opiliones – Palpigradi – Pseudoscorpiones – Pycnogonida – Michael G. Rix Schizomida – Scorpiones – Uropygi Department of Terrestrial Zoology Western Australian Museum The aim of the society is to promote interest in Locked Bag 49, Welshpool DC, W.A. 6986 the ecology, behaviour and taxonomy of Email: [email protected] arachnids of the Australasian region. Articles should be typed and saved as a MEMBERSHIP Microsoft Word document, with text in Times New Roman 12-point font. Only electronic Membership is open to all who have an interest email (preferred) or posted CD-ROM submiss- in arachnids – amateurs, students and ions will be accepted. professionals – and is managed by our Administrator (note new address ): Previous issues of the newsletter are available at http://www.australasian- Volker W. Framenau arachnology.org/newsletter/issues . Phoenix Environmental Sciences P.O. Box 857 LIBRARY Balcatta, W.A. 6914 Email: [email protected] For those members who do not have access to a scientific library, the society has a large number Membership fees in Australian dollars (per 4 of reference books, scientific journals and paper issues): reprints available, either for loan or as photo- *discount personal institutional copies. For all enquiries concerning publica- Australia $8 $10 $12 tions please contact our Librarian: NZ/Asia $10 $12 $14 Elsewhere $12 $14 $16 Jean-Claude Herremans There is no agency discount. *Discount rates apply to P.O. Box 291 pensioners, students and the unemployed (please Manly, New South Wales 1655 provide proof of status). Email: [email protected] Cheques are payable in Australian dollars to Professional members are encouraged to send in “Australasian Arachnological Society”. Any their arachnological reprints as they become number of issues can be paid for in advance, available. and receipts can be issued upon request. COVER ILLUSTRATION Members will receive a PDF version* of the Female trochanteriid spider (family newsletter Australasian Arachnology , and will Trochanteriidae): Tinytrema yarra Platnick, be notified by email when their subscription has 2002 from Williams Nature Reserve, near expired. Williams, Western Australia. These small, delicate spiders usually occur under bark. *NOTE. PDF-only as of Issue 80 Image by Mark Harvey (WA Museum) . Australasian Arachnology 86 Page 3 EDITORIAL… Recent Publications list. I am aware of some superb research projects currently underway, in Well, it’s been a very long time between both Australia and New Zealand, and it will be drinks…but welcome (finally) to Issue 86 of nice to see these projects come to fruition over Australasian Arachnology . I’d like to begin this the next few years. Indeed, the combined editorial by first apologising for the severe Society of Australian Systematic Biologists hiatus in the circulation of this newsletter, due (SASB) and Invertebrate Biodiversity and largely to my own circumstances over the last Conservation Conference (IBCC) will be held two years. Needless to say that no matter what in Fremantle, Western Australia in December the publication frequency of this newsletter this year, and promises to showcase some of the (usually twice per annum, but sometimes less), best arachnological and systematic research members will continue to receive the number of from around the region. And for those with newsletters they have paid for, as the society deeper pockets, the 20 th International Congress works on a ‘pay-per-issue’ rather than an annual of Arachnology will be held in Golden, subscription basis. Colorado (USA) in July 2016. In the last newsletter we paid tribute to the late In this issue Malcolm Tattersall introduces us to Valerie Davies and Doug Wallace – both key the wonderful world of silver orb-weaving spid- figures of Australasian arachnology – and in ers (genus Leucauge ), familiar to so many of us this edition we also remember Graham Wishart, who live (or have lived) in the tropics and sub- a mygalomorph taxonomist and collector from tropics. Robert Raven also explores the the Illawarra region of New South Wales. I only etymology of the term ‘tarantula’, and Rob met Graham once during a visit to the Whyte and Volker Framenau discuss the chall- Australian Museum in Sydney, but his char- enges of moulting in spiders, and some of its acteristic warmth, enthusiasm and charm left a morphological consequences. Thank you to lasting impression. I routinely consult his everyone who has submitted articles for inc- excellent taxonomic works on the idiopid lusion in this long-delayed Issue 86. spiders of eastern New South Wales, and Robert Raven has kindly contributed a fitting I wish all members the very best for the rest of obituary to Graham and his scientific work. 2015, and please consider sending me articles for inclusion in future editions (the newsletter Much has happened in the world of Aust- benefits directly from your contributions). ralasian arachnology recently, and there is much to look forward to. Firstly, Volker Framenau, Cheers, Barbara Baehr and Paul Zborowski have pub- Mike lished their authoritative and richly-illustrated A Guide to the Spiders of Australia (New Holland Publishers, 2014), and Mark Harvey has written a thoughtful book review in this edition of the newsletter. Likewise, Cor Vink and Bryce Mc- Quillan have just published their Photographic Guide to Spiders of New Zealand (New Holland Publishers, 2015), following in the footsteps of the late (great) Lyn and Ray Forster. Numerous fascinating research articles have been pub- Scorpion, Isometroides sp. lished on Australasian arachnids since 2013, (Buthidae) from the Pilbara, Western Australia. and a selection of these can be perused in the Image by Mark Harvey. Australasian Arachnology 86 Page 4 MEMBERSHIP UPDATES Renan Castro Santana South Brisbane, Queensland 4101 New Members: Vikki Smith Christchurch, New Zealand 7647 Tessa Barrat Thornleigh, New South Wales 2120 Mark Wong Canberra, A.C.T. 2601 Dominic Casanova The Rock, New South Wales 2655 ___________________________ Jess Clayton General Announcements Adelaide, South Australia 5001 The Spiders of New Zealand for sale Bernard Crow Innisfail, Queensland 4860 Nigel Cotsell has five parts (i.e. I-V; not VI) of The Spiders of New Zealand by R. R. Forster Loxley Fedec Porongurup, Western Australia 6324 and C. L. Wilton for sale. Please contact Nigel at [email protected] if you are interested Jarrod Gagliardi in purchasing this classic tome. Rye, Victoria 3941 ___________________________ Neil Hardie What happened to my face and palps? Northbridge, New South Wales 1560 by Robert Whyte 1 & Volker W. Framenau 2 Jesse Hibbs Burwood East, Victoria 3151 1 The Gap, Queensland 4061, Australia Stanislav Korenko 2Phoenix Environmental Sciences, 1/511 Prague, Czech Republic 165 21 Wanneroo Rd, Balcatta, Western Australia 6021 Allan Lance When you shed your skin several times over Bordertown, South Australia 5267 your lifetime as a male spider, finally emerging Ruth Lipscomb as an adult with fully-formed pedipalps, there Innisfail, Queensland 4860 are a lot of opportunities for things to go wrong. David Marshall Crawley, Western Australia 6009 This series of photos (Fig. 1) shows a male orb- weaving spider in the family Araneidae. It bel- Leanda Mason ongs to a group of Australian orb-weavers with Mount Claremont, Western Australia 6010 affinities to Eriophora , such as Novakiella , Ba- Chris Norwood ckobourkia and Plebs . The best known Austral- Rivervale, Western Australia 6103 ian Eriophora species are the Garden Orb- weavers E. biapicata (found throughout Aust- James O’Shea ralia) and E. transmarina (usually found along Bardon, Queensland 4065 the tropical northern and eastern coast south to Sydney). However, it is now recognised that Buck Richardson true Eriophora , a genus originally described Kuranda, Queensland 4881 from the Americas, does not occur in Australia (V. W. Framenau, unpubl. data). Australasian Arachnology 86 Page 5 catching prey and feeding, although food intake in males is often reduced in favour of chasing a female mate. Problems with moults are not uncommon and possibly account for a high percentage of the mortality in juvenile spiders, but they are rarely this extreme. Some fail to have enough energy to harden the integument into nicely formed limbs, resulting in deformities resembling the ‘twisted balloon animals’ you might have seen being made at children’s parties. One such case is the Deinopis subrufa (Ogre-faced Netcasting Spider) pictured below (Fig. 2), whose legs didn’t firm up and whose pedipalps were severely malformed. Figure 1. Male ‘Eriophora ’ sp. (Araneidae) Figure 2. Male Deinopis subrufa (Deinopidae) from Mallacoota, Victoria, with deformed from Carnarvon Station, Queensland, with mouthparts and pedipalps. severely deformed pedipalps. Note the Images by Iain R. Macaulay, used with permission. uncoiled emboli and left leg I. Image by Rob Whyte. The spider when photographed seemed to be moving about happily enough, but something Others problems involve spiders who can’t seemed to be wrong with its face and pedipalps. properly shed their previous skin and get They were bizarrely shrunken and deformed. trapped in the remains,