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!

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.

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.

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."

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!

The Popeye of mites.

This was one super-gravid spider! I hear people sometimes think spiders look like ticks and usually it seems a bit silly to me, but in this case I can make an exception. Ceratinella parvula (Araneae, Linyphiidae) from Eagle Marsh, IN. #arthropod #taxonomy #pregnancy

It's hard to express to you how beautiful this creature is. It's like a living galaxy. #arthropod #beetle

For the last day of #InverteFest, I give you a male of Ceratinops latus (Araneae: Linyphiidae) from Big Oaks National Wildlife Refuge in SE Indiana. This lil guy is about 1.5 mm in length.

Man, if only.

Taxonomy has been asleep for 525 million years.

An infuriating article from U. Rochester school newspaper in 1957 that reflects the scientific attitude at mid-century towards taxonomy, biodiversity, and the perceived value of specimen collections.

A 12-shot stack of the curious silkhenge spider egg sac (more info here: www.rainforestexpeditions.com/we-solved-an...). This is currently being studied by brilliant arachnologists, including the amazing @henriquesbio.bsky.social. It's still not clear what type of spider builds this structure.

“If we stop discouraging students, telling them that there is no future in taxonomy without arbitrary, molecular guardrails; if we restore positions for well-prepared young taxon experts; if we appropriate research funds for revisionary studies;..."

A chalcid wasp (Hymenoptera: Chalcidoidea) from Palos Fen Nature Preserve, a wetland in Palos Hills, IL just outside of Chicago. #InverteFest

I love fictional taxonomic studies like this. This reminds me of our recently published study with @sderkarabetian.bsky.social of fictional spiders portrayed in the Magic: The Gathering card game: virginianaturalhistorysociety.com/wp-content/u...

A spine-covered plant hopper nymph (Hemiptera: Ceresini) from Virginia. #InverteFest

The periscope-like head of Walckenaeria subpallida (Araneae, Linyphiidae) from Virginia, USA. #InverteFest

For #Invertefest, I present to you a trapdoor spider from Alabama that plugs the opening of its burrow with its abdomen when it gets scared. This adorable critter is Cyclocosmia truncata (Araneae, Halonoproctidae).

The smallest (and leggiest) of unicorns from western Virginia (Gnathonargus unicorn (Araneae: Linyphiidae)). #InverteFest

A long-legged mite from a northeastern Florida swamp. #InvertFest

Let's go, #invertefest! Let's start off with the face of Ceratinopsis laticeps (Araneae: Linyphiidae) from an Illinois fen.

I say this every time de-extinction comes up: it makes no sense to devote science to bringing back extinct animals when we can’t be bothered to keep extant ones alive in the first place.

Thanks Co-Pilot for the list of spider species, but I think you can stop now. Please, for the love of God, stop!

As a member of the American Arachnological Society board, I'm glad we co-signed this letter. Federally-funded science plays a critically important part in producing important future discoveries in almost every scientific field. We cannot let this funding lapse. It must be protected.

What a beauty! From a fen in Cook Co., IL collected in January of this year.

It's the 1890's and you're digging up coffins in Washington D.C. (like you do). Why not collect the spiders too while you're at it?

Happy Fred Korematsu Day! en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Ko...

I think scientific composite images can be both informative and beautiful. I just created this today and I think it's gorgeous in how informative it is. This is for Tmeticus maximus (Linyphiidae), a spider species that was last described in 1882. The description is getting a facelift.

From Hentz, 1845. This is part of the official initial description of Dolomedes albineus from 180 years ago. I'm not crying! 😥

Sci-comm at its finest! @sderkarabetian.bsky.social and I just published a systematic study of arachnids in the Magic: The Gathering card game @mtgarena.com. We discuss classification and evolution of spiders across the multiverse. Check it out here: virginianaturalhistorysociety.com/wp-content/u...

Turns out that the most common troglobiont species in North America is just that: a single species. My colleagues were gracious enough to allow me to be a co-author on this excellent pub about low genetic diversity in the cave spider, Phanetta subterranea (Linyphiidae). t.co/NzZEulOv4D

This tiny little guy (~1.5mm) is Scolopembolus littoralis, a small dwarf spider that's known only from New Brunswick and Connecticut. That is until we found it at a military fort way south in southern Virginia. Not only that, but the female's never been described and we found her too!

It's been 97 years. In early 1927, arachnologist William Barrows was collecting spiders near Gainesville, Florida and came across a new species of armored dwarf spider that he later named Floricomus bishopi. It was never seen again. That is until @tyuge.bsky.social found it again in GA! Behold!

At a bioblitz in June, we caught a spider we shouldn't have caught: Paramaevia hobbsae. I say that because not only has this spider never been collected in Indiana before, it's never been found in the Midwest either! As GB Edwards said when I presented him with this specimen, "Holy smokes!"

The face of a tiny sheet-web weaving spider (Dicymbium elongatum) from a relict fen in central Indiana. I found this spider under desiccated reeds and sedges in October. This is the first time this species has been recorded from the state.

The armored dwarf spider, Floricomus ornatulus, was found in southern Texas (Edinburg, Harlingen, and San Juan) 90 years ago and was never seen again. It's about 1.2mm in length, males have a little horn and an orange shield on its back. It lives near the ground in tiny webs. Anyone in the area?

A Walckenaeria subpallida male from Seashore State Park, Virginia. Oftentimes erigonine males (money / dwarf spiders in the family Linyphiidae) have carapace extensions and modifications that allow females to grip them during mating.

Jackson Means and I searched for tiny erigonine spiders last week at Fort Barfoot, VA. It's part of my ongoing search for a lost species of spider that hasn't been seen since 1923. I think it's a prairie specialist that disappeared when the Piedmont Prairie was destroyed. Hopefully a few remain.

Had a great time at the @arachnology.bsky.social conference in Chetumal, Mexico!