Marc A. Milne
Spider taxonomist / conservationist / ecologist. Professor of Biology at the University of Indianapolis. Canadian. Lover of metal, cats, and hockey. 🌹
- Reposted by Marc A. MilneIn solidarity with today's ICE OUT OF MINNESOTA blackout, MinnMax is donating $1 to the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota for every share of this Bluesky post for the next hour.
- It's true, after years of work, Jackson Means, myself, and the late Dr. Richard Hoffman compiled a 130-page tome of Virginia spiders in the journal, Banisteria. The journal dedicated the entire first issue to this work. We add over 140 new species records to the state to stand at 713.
- @mhedin.bsky.social recognize your namesake from Arizona?
- This lil spikey swampy guy has spines even on his eyes! Yikes!
- Reposted by Marc A. MilneI think it should be illegal to name your subdivision after the wildlife you displaced to build mcmansions Bobolink Acres? Not anymore, you assholes, you made sure of that!
- Reposted by Marc A. MilneSome genera of Money #spiders Linyphyiidae are present as adults throughout the year, often with peak male activity in the #winter months (see chart for Walckenaeria acuminata). Whatever the weather, it's a good time to be out looking for them and their wonderfully distinctive headgear! #Christmas
- A cubed flat top for this southern Alabama boy.
- RE-DISCOVERY #4 Emblyna suwanea (Gertsch, 1946) (Dictynidae) was last collected by the great V. Wilton Ivie in 1943 near Sylvania, GA and hasn't been seen or collected since (82 years). We found a single male by vacuuming in the Okefenokee Swamp NWR along the Chesser Island boardwalk trail.
- Oh to be a little tank living my life out in the soil.
- RE-DISCOVERY #3 Scotinella pennimani Platnick and Chamé-Vázquez, 2024 (Phrurolithidae) was described just last year from specimens collected in 1967 (58 years ago). We found this lady in Okefenokee NWR on Trembling Earth Nature Trail just north of Stephen C. Foster State Park in SE Georgia.
- Introduce yourself with 5 animals you've seen in the wild: [this spider has no common name] [this spider has no common name] [this spider has no common name] [this spider has no common name] [this spider has no common name]
- Also featuring the incredible @mhedin.bsky.social and Kefyn Catley!
- A love letter to #spiders and everything they do for us, referencing a 2023 ZooKeys study by @mhedin.bsky.social and @forthespiders.bsky.social where they described 10 new cave spider species! eu.knoxnews.com/story/life/2...
- RE-DISCOVERY #2 Our trip to Okefenokee NWR has resulted in another re-discovery of a long-lost species. Ceratinopsis sutoris Bishop & Crosby 1930 was last seen in 1927 (98 years ago!) and we collected several males and females. The species has a orange-red carapace with black around the eyes.
- RE-DISCOVERY #1! Our trip to Okefenokee NWR has already resulted in a re-discovery of a long-lost species. Ceratinopsis bona Chamberlin & Ivie, 1944 was last seen in 1943, 82 years ago. In addition to possessing genitalia that match the descriptions, their black tibia IVs are also diagnostic.
- A shiny beetle collected from tall grass on Billy's Island in the middle of Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, Georgia.
- Day 4 of our Okefenokee NWF collecting trip took us to Mixons Hammock east of Stephen C Foster State Park. We canoed the two miles and then sampled mossy patches and magnolia litter in cypress swamps. Not the most productive, but we found many linyphiids for study.
- Day 3 of our collecting trip was to the east side of Okefenokee NWF (a 1.5hr drive around the southern edge) where we collected in swampy thatch/moss patches along the Chesser Island boardwalk. Found lots of erigonines, a pygmy rattlesnake, and a water moccasin. Didn't collect the snakes, though. 🙂
- Day 2 of our Okefenokee spider collecting trip went well. We were joined by Brett Tyler, a spider enthusiast at Georgia DNR. To collect, we vacuumed under Sphagnum moss mats and among Cypress knees in wet swamps and jumped off of boardwalks to get to emergent wetland vegetation. Long, tiring day.
- Day 1 of our Okefenokee NWF trip completed. We canoed to Billy's Island (~2mi.), collected spiders all day via litter sift and vacuum, and canoed back to camp. Very productive and hopefully we collected some lost species.
- A fourth spider we're searching for at Okefenokee NWF later this month is Floricomus setosus. This tiny spider was last collected 82 years ago, in 1943 and was previously found "E. side of Okefenokee Swamp" in 1933. Only one male and two females have ever been collected.
- One of the most interesting morphological quirks of this spider is a character I have never seen in any other spider, regardless of taxonomic family, and that is the presence of two stout spines on the male clypeus. The clypeus is on the "face" just below the anterior eyes, above the chelicerae.
- What's extra interesting here is that the males of every other species in this genus not only lacks spines like these, but, in its place possesses soft patches of microsetae. Could these stout spines be mimicking the function of soft microsetae patches? It seems unlikely?
- A third spider we'll be searching for in Okefenokee Swamp is Floricomus floricomus. A tiny, 1.5mm spider with a distinct plumose setae-covered horn on the head of males, this spider was first discovered in 1922 when it was CUT OUT OF THE STOMACH OF A TOAD that was hopping around in Okefenokee Swamp.
- I identified a second specimen in the FMNH collection a few years ago from northern Florida, collected by Larry Watrous 58 years later in 1980 from "leaf litter around a pond margin." The female is still unknown, so it would be excellent to find and collect both together to pair up those sexes.
- Another spider we are searching for on our Okefenokee NWF journey is Idionella titivillitium. It was first collected in 1912 on Billy's Island at the edge of the swamp, which is where we are traveling to in late October. It was collected, "by sifting decaying leaves in dense shade at edge of swamp."
- That male was collected in 1912. The female wasn't found until 1943, near Sylvania, 144mi N of the swamp. Even more concerning is that the female was not collected with a male so how did Chamberlin and Ivie know it was this species? 🤷♂️Dubious. Hopefully we find both sexes in one catch to be certain.
- One of the spiders we are searching for on our Okefenokee NWF trip later this month is Ceratinopsis bona. Described from southeastern Georgia, this specimen hasn't been seen since it was collected for that description in 1943. It is reddish brown with black around the eyes with a gray abdomen.
- In three weeks, Mike Draney (U. Wisconsin) and I will travel to Okefenokee Swamp NWF in southern Georgia in hopes of finding some lost spider species. We'll be collecting on Billy's Island and we'll have to travel by boat through the swamp to reach it. It was last sampled for spiders in 1921.
- Thrilled our paper is finally out! A great collaboration between @mcaterino.bsky.social, Ernesto Recuero, and myself. We looked at endemism in spiders in southern Appalachia (largely NC). This is also likely the most species-rich phylogeny (although just COI-based) of linyphiids yet published!
