Spider Camp 2012!

Greetings, readers! I am currently in Highlands, North Carolina, for some additional training to help with my research. I am taking a spider identification course with Dr. Kefyn Catley from Western Carolina University, an expert arachnologist and evolutionary biologist.

The course has been a great mix of lectures on spider morphology, taxonomy, and ecology, while the rest of most days have been spent outdoors collecting as many different spiders as possible. In my own work in urban Cleveland I have become familiar with many spider families: wolf spiders, jumping spiders, sheet-web weavers, ground spiders...the list goes on! But the southern Appalachians have truly shown themselves to be one of the most diverse habitats in the world for spiders, where I've seen species we'll never have in Ohio. One of the most fascinating is the lampshade spider, Hypochilus pococki. This belongs to an ancient group of spiders which still retains some ancestral traits such as two pairs of book lungs (most spiders you see today, excluding tarantulas and their closer relatives, only have one pair). They make some really amazing webs along rock outcrops and caves which resemble lampshades. This is a photo taken with my phone, so you may not be able to make out the spider sitting in the middle of the circle.

However, I've also noticed some interesting overlap between spiders I've collected here in the mountainous forests and those I've collected for my own research in Cleveland. Some of the most common species in my urban sites, including Pardosa milvina (wolf spider), Frontinella communis (sheet-web weaver), and Leucauge venusta (long-jawed orb weaver), are also very abundant down here in the Appalachians (L. venusta is absolutely everywhere!). Granted, this research station is slightly developed with a small town close by, but it is interesting to note how some species are so widely distributed and abundant in two very different types of habitats. Their presence highlights the interplay between habitat management and structure along with species behavior and developmental traits which allow for widespread distribution.

I am here for the rest of the week, completing my collection and identifying specimens. Spider identification is notoriously difficult, often requiring a microscope.

And beer and Triskets.