Discovery of the Largest Orbweaving Spider Species: The Evolution of Gigantism in Nephila

More than 41,000 spider species are known with about 400-500 added each year, but for some well-known groups, such as the giant golden orbweavers, Nephila, the last valid described species dates from the 19(th) century. Nephila are renowned for being the largest web-spinning spiders, making the largest orb webs, and are model organisms for the study of extreme sexual size dimorphism (SSD) and sexual biology. Here, we report on the discovery of a new, giant Nephila species from Africa and Madagascar, and review size evolution and SSD in Nephilidae.We formally describe N. komaci sp. nov., the largest web spinning species known, and place the species in phylogenetic context to reconstruct the evolution of mean size (via squared change parsimony). We then test female and male mean size correlation using phylogenetically independent contrasts, and simulate nephilid body size evolution using Monte Carlo statistics.Nephila females increased in size almost monotonically to establish a mostly African clade of true giants. In contrast, Nephila male size is effectively decoupled and hovers around values roughly one fifth of female size. Although N. komaci females are the largest Nephila yet discovered, the males are also large and thus their SSD is not exceptional

Nephilingis livida

Peer reviewe

Nephila constricta

Peer reviewe

A GIS Model Predicting Potential Distributions of a Lineage: A Test Case on Hermit Spiders (Nephilidae: Nephilengys)

BACKGROUND: Although numerous studies model species distributions, these models are almost exclusively on single species, while studies of evolutionary lineages are preferred as they by definition study closely related species with shared history and ecology. Hermit spiders, genus Nephilengys, represent an ecologically important but relatively species-poor lineage with a globally allopatric distribution. Here, we model Nephilengys global habitat suitability based on known localities and four ecological parameters. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We geo-referenced 751 localities for the four most studied Nephilengys species: N. cruentata (Africa, New World), N. livida (Madagascar), N. malabarensis (S-SE Asia), and N. papuana (Australasia). For each locality we overlaid four ecological parameters: elevation, annual mean temperature, annual mean precipitation, and land cover. We used linear backward regression within ArcGIS to select two best fit parameters per species model, and ModelBuilder to map areas of high, moderate and low habitat suitability for each species within its directional distribution. For Nephilengys cruentata suitable habitats are mid elevation tropics within Africa (natural range), a large part of Brazil and the Guianas (area of synanthropic spread), and even North Africa, Mediterranean, and Arabia. Nephilengys livida is confined to its known range with suitable habitats being mid-elevation natural and cultivated lands. Nephilengys malabarensis, however, ranges across the Equator throughout Asia where the model predicts many areas of high ecological suitability in the wet tropics. Its directional distribution suggests the species may potentially spread eastwards to New Guinea where the suitable areas of N. malabarensis largely surpass those of the native N. papuana, a species that prefers dry forests of Australian (sub)tropics. CONCLUSIONS: Our model is a customizable GIS tool intended to predict current and future potential distributions of globally distributed terrestrial lineages. Its predictive potential may be tested in foreseeing species distribution shifts due to habitat destruction and global climate change

Die Enstehung des Wiener Goethe-Denkmals an der Ringstraße

Kurz bevor das Schiller-Denkmal in Wien enthüllt wurde, rief Graf von Auersperg dem Goetheforscher Karl Julius Schröer zu: „Das nächste Denkmal muss in Wien nun ein Goethe-Denkmal sein!“ Am 4. Januar 1878 fand die Gründung des heute noch bestehenden Wiener Goethe-Vereins statt, der es sich zur Aufgabe machte Johann Wolfgang von Goethe in Wien ein Denkmal zu errichten. Die Entstehungsgeschichte nimmt einen Zeitraum von 22 Jahren ein und umfasste, neben der endgültigen Konkurrenz zwischen den bedeutenden Wiener Bildhauern Edmund Hellmer und Viktor Tilgner, noch einen innoffiziellen Wettbewerb. Für diesen schufen die Bildhauer Karl Kundmann, Rudolf Weyr, Josef Echteler, Percival M. F. Hedley, Edmund Hellmer, Viktor Tilgner, Otto König und Hans Bitterlich Entwürfe, die am 9. März 1890 im Künstlerhaus öffentlich präsentiert wurden. Danach wurden sie einmalig im Monatsblatt des Goethe-Vereins abgebildet und sind seitdem in Vergessenheit geraten. Im Zuge dieser Arbeit werden sie erstmals beschrieben, typologisiert und in die Denkmaltradition des 19. Jahrhunderts eingeordnet. Weiters wird auf bereits früher entstandene Denkmäler des Dichterfürsten eingegangen, das Thema „Goethe in der Kunst“ angeschnitten und das Wiener Goethe-Denkmal in den Kontext der anderen Künstlerdenkmäler der Ringstraße gestellt

Dionizij Tračan in začetki slovnične terminologije

V jedrnem delu prispevka podajam integralni prevod Slovnice Dionizija Tračana s komentarji zahtevnejših oziroma manj jasnih mest v opombah, v spremni študiji pa pojasnjujem kontekst njenega nastanka, predstavljam njene posebnosti in razpravljam o grški slovničarski tradiciji, ki ji sodobno slovničarstvo med drugim dolguje skorajda celotno slovnično izrazje. Ponazoritvi tradicije prevajanja slovničnih izrazov služi tabela, ki ponazarja princip kalkiranja grških terminov v latinščino in dalje latinskih v slovenščino. S tem namenom in z namenom zveste ponazoritve izvornega slovničnega koncepta tudi v prevodu rabim uveljavljeno domače slovnično izrazje. Kadar je uveljavljeni izraz pomensko ali konceptualno oddaljen od izvirnega grškega izraza, tedaj le-tega po principu kalkiranja prevedem s pomensko bolj transparentnim, četudi v slovničarstvu neuveljavljenim ali zastarelim, domačim izrazom, mestoma celo z neologizmom