Status of \u3ci\u3eZygiella\u3c/i\u3e and \u3ci\u3eParazygiella\u3c/i\u3e (Araneae: Araneidae) in the Great Lakes States

A confusing nomenclatural history has resulted in the persistence of the idea that Parazygiella montana (C. L. Koch, 1834), a Palearctic species of orbweaver (Araneae: Araneidae), occurs in the Great Lakes states. I discuss this nomenclatural history and report upon all available material from the Great Lakes states to show that P. montana has never been recorded from the region, and that all previous records of Zygiella/Zilla montana refer to a native species, Zygiella nearctica Gertsch, 1964. Although Z. nearctica has been collected from mainland Michigan and Wisconsin historically, all post 1960 records of this species are from islands in Lakes Michigan and Superior. This suggests that changes on the mainland (perhaps due to introduced species) may have resulted in the decline of Z. nearctica in this region

Araneae and Opiliones From \u3ci\u3eTypha\u3c/i\u3e Spp. And \u3ci\u3ePhragmites Australis\u3c/i\u3e Stands of Green Bay, Lake Michigan, and an Exotic Spider Species Newly Reported From the U.S. Great Lakes Region

Invertebrates were sampled using pan traps in three paired sets of Typha spp. (cattail) and Phragmites australis (giant reed grass) habitats in Lake Michigan’s Green Bay in June and September 2002. The collection included 34 harvestmen belonging to one species (found at all three sites), and 180 spiders belonging to 25 species in eight families. The two habitats yielded similar numbers of spider taxa, and 16 species were restricted to one of the two habitats. Between 10 and 15 species were found at each site, and only five spider species were collected at all three sites. Four species appear to be new records for the state of Wisconsin, including the linyphiid spiders Hypomma marxii (Keyserling) and Sitalcus ruralis Bishop & Crosby, and the salticid Synageles noxiosus (Hentz). Of particular interest is the first report from the U.S. Great Lakes region of the clubionid spider Clubiona pallidula (Clerck), a species introduced from Eurasia

Review of \u3ci\u3eSpiders of North America\u3c/i\u3e, by Sarah Rose

A field guide to spiders, the dominant terrestrial predator group, has long been a desire for North American naturalists, biologists, and spider fans, but not surprisingly, the first “real” field guide has been a long time coming. The diversity of spiders, with over 50,000 known species globally (World Spider Catalog 2022) and around 4,000 in North America north of Mexico (Rose 2022), is well beyond the diversity of more traditional field guide targets such as birds (about 1,000 species north of Mexico; American Birding Association 2022) or butterflies (about 725 species north of Mexico; North American Butterfly Association 2022). Also, spiders are often difficult to separate (even to family, let alone to species) by the usual “photographic” traits of body shape and coloration that are so successfully relied on for birds and butterflies. Finally, the average body size of spiders is less than 5 mm (Roff 1991), so many spider species remain quite challenging to photograph or to observe adequately with the naked eye. Past solutions to these difficulties usually involved smaller geographic areas than North America, and they often concentrated on commonly encountered and larger, conspicuous taxa. Spider enthusiasts without microscopes have relied on more modest guides such as Spiders of the Carolinas (Gaddy 2009) with “100 of our most common species” or Spiders of the North Woods (Weber 2013) with “135 of our northern species.” Dr. Sarah Rose succeeds in being a lot more comprehensive in her approach to the Spiders of North America, and while there certainly are not 4,000 species differentiated in this 611- page field guide, the arachnological community has reason to be both excited and proud of this arachnological landmark, which covers more than 500 species. It is indeed a legitimate continent-scale field guide, although not all the problems of dealing with this difficult group have yet been adequately solved

Status of \u3ci\u3eZygiella\u3c/i\u3e and \u3ci\u3eParazygiella\u3c/i\u3e (Araneae: Araneidae) in the Great Lakes States

A confusing nomenclatural history has resulted in the persistence of the idea that Parazygiella montana (C. L. Koch, 1834), a Palearctic species of orbweaver (Araneae: Araneidae), occurs in the Great Lakes states. I discuss this nomenclatural history and report upon all available material from the Great Lakes states to show that P. montana has never been recorded from the region, and that all previous records of Zygiella/Zilla montana refer to a native species, Zygiella nearctica Gertsch, 1964. Although Z. nearctica has been collected from mainland Michigan and Wisconsin historically, all post 1960 records of this species are from islands in Lakes Michigan and Superior. This suggests that changes on the mainland (perhaps due to introduced species) may have resulted in the decline of Z. nearctica in this region

Preliminary Survey of the Terrestrial Isopods (Isopoda), Millipedes (Diplopoda), Harvestmen (Opiliones), and Spiders (Araneae) of Toft Point Natural Area, Door County, Wisconsin

Toft Point Natural Area is a National Natural Landmark owned and managed by the University of Wisconsin – Green Bay and located on the Lake Michigan shore of Wisconsin’s Door Peninsula. With twelve biotic communities on 700 acres, Toft Point contains considerable biological diversity. We conducted a preliminary survey of the arachnids (spiders and harvestmen, excluding mites and pseudoscorpions), millipedes (diplopods), and terrestrial isopods (Isopoda: Oniscoidea). Sampling occurred on three dates in 2001 using leaf litter collection with Berlese extraction and a timed collection by hand that incorporated a variety of techniques. Specimens from a 1992 survey and assorted collecting events were also used to compile a species list. The list includes five isopods, four millipedes, six harvestmen, and 113 spiders, including 16 new state records (two millipedes and 14 spiders) and 90 new Door County records. Litter collection and sampling in wetland habitats were both especially productive

Preliminary Survey of the Terrestrial Isopods (Isopoda), Millipedes (Diplopoda), Harvestmen (Opiliones), and Spiders (Araneae) of Toft Point Natural Area, Door County, Wisconsin

Toft Point Natural Area is a National Natural Landmark owned and managed by the University of Wisconsin – Green Bay and located on the Lake Michigan shore of Wisconsin’s Door Peninsula. With twelve biotic communities on 700 acres, Toft Point contains considerable biological diversity. We conducted a preliminary survey of the arachnids (spiders and harvestmen, excluding mites and pseudoscorpions), millipedes (diplopods), and terrestrial isopods (Isopoda: Oniscoidea). Sampling occurred on three dates in 2001 using leaf litter collection with Berlese extraction and a timed collection by hand that incorporated a variety of techniques. Specimens from a 1992 survey and assorted collecting events were also used to compile a species list. The list includes five isopods, four millipedes, six harvestmen, and 113 spiders, including 16 new state records (two millipedes and 14 spiders) and 90 new Door County records. Litter collection and sampling in wetland habitats were both especially productive

Spider fauna of semiarid eastern colorado agroecosystems: Diversity, abundance, and effects of crop intensification

Spiders are critical predators in agroecosystems. Crop management practices can influence predator density and diversity, which, in turn, can influence pest management strategies. Crop intensification is a sustainable agricultural technique that can enhance crop production although optimizing soil moisture. To date, there is no information on how crop intensification affects natural enemy populations, particularly spiders. This study had two objectives: to characterize the abundance and diversity of spiders in eastern Colorado agroecosystems, and to test the hypothesis that spider diversity and density would be higher in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) in crop-intensified rotations compared with wheat in conventional rotations. We collected spiders through pitfall, vacuum, and lookdown sampling from 2002 to 2007 to test these objectives. Over 11,000 spiders in 19 families from 119 species were captured from all sampling techniques. Interestingly, the hunting spider guild represented 89% of the spider fauna captured from all sites with the families Gnaphosidae and Lycosidae representing 75% of these spiders. Compared with European agroecosystems, these agroecosystems had greater diversity, which can be beneficial for the biological control of pests. Overall, spider densities were low in these semiarid cropping systems, and crop intensification effects on spider densities were not evident at this scale. © 2013 Entomological Society of America

Species conservation profiles of a random sample of world spiders I : Agelenidae to Filistatidae

Background The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species is the most widely used information source on the extinction risk of species. One of the uses of the Red List is to evaluate and monitor the state of biodiversity and a possible approach for this purpose is the Red List Index (RLI). For many taxa, mainly hyperdiverse groups, it is not possible within available resources to assess all known species. In such cases, a random sample of species might be selected for assessment and the results derived from it extrapolated for the entire group - the Sampled Red List Index (SRLI). With the current contribution and the three following papers, we intend to create the first point in time of a future spider SRLI encompassing 200 species distributed across the world. New information A sample of 200 species of spiders were randomly selected from the World Spider Catalogue, an updated global database containing all recognised species names for the group. The 200 selected species where divided taxonomically at the family level and the familes were ordered alphabetically. In this publication, we present the conservation profiles of 46 species belonging to the famillies alphabetically arranged between Agelenidae and Filistatidae, which encompassed Agelenidae, Amaurobiidae, Anyphaenidae, Araneidae, Archaeidae, Barychelidae, Clubionidae, Corinnidae, Ctenidae, Ctenizidae, Cyatholipidae, Dictynidae, Dysderidae, Eresidae and Filistatidae.Peer reviewe

Species conservation profiles of a random sample of world spiders III : Oecobiidae to Salticidae

Background The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species is the most widely used information source on the extinction risk of species. One of the uses of the Red List is to evaluate and monitor the state of biodiversity and a possible approach for this purpose is the Red List Index (RLI). For many taxa, mainly hyperdiverse groups, it is not possible within available resources to assess all known species. In such cases, a random sample of species might be selected for assessment and the results derived from it extrapolated for the entire group-the Sampled Red List Index (SRLI). The current contribution is the third in four papers that will constitute the baseline of a future spider SRLI encompassing 200 species distributed across the world. New information A sample of 200 species of spiders were randomly selected from the World Spider Catalogue, an updated global database containing all recognized species names for the group. The 200 selected species where divided taxonomically at the family level, and the familes were ordered alphabetically. In this publication, we present the conservation profiles of 58 species belonging to the famillies alphabetically arranged between Oecobiidae and Salticidae, which encompassed Oecobiidae, Oonopidae, Orsolobidae, Oxyopidae, Palpimanidae, Philodromidae, Pholcidae, Pisauridae, Prodidomidae and Salticidae.Peer reviewe

Globally distributed occurrences utilised in 200 spider species conservation profiles (Arachnida, Araneae)

Background Data on 200 species of spiders were collected to assess the global threat status of the group worldwide. To supplement existing digital occurrence records from GBIF, a dataset of new occurrence records was compiled for all species using published literature or online sources, from which geographic coordinates were extracted or interpreted from locality description data. New information A total of 5,104 occurrence records were obtained, of which 2,378 were from literature or online sources other than GBIF. Of these, 2,308 had coordinate data. Reporting years ranged from 1834 to 2017. Most records were from North America and Europe, with Brazil, China, India and Australia also well represented.Peer reviewe