9712353 HORMIGA Spiders are numerous, widespread and have a direct impact on human affairs. About 30 species inflict medically important bites; more generally, spider venoms are used in medical and pharmaceutical research. Spider silk has extraordinary physical properties; silks and their constituents are foci of biotechnological research with possible commercial applications. Spiders also regulate insect populations in natural and agricultural environments. Nevertheless spider diversity and biology are inadequately understood. About 36,000 species are known to science, less than half of the number thought to be present on Earth. Faunas in tropical and Southern Hemisphere temperate areas are most poorly known. Even for the described species, accurate identification manuals, keys, monographs and phylogenetic analyses are, for the most part, lacking. In this PEET proposal, Gustavo Hormiga, John Coddington and colleagues will improve the state of spider taxonomy by conducting monographic research within three subfamilies (Linyphiidae; Theridiidae; Tetragnathidae) of araneoid (Araneae) spiders. The monographic research will make use of museum and field-collected specimens to describe new species, produce keys to species, reconstruct phylogenetic relationships among the species, and develop a computerized information system linking text, data, and image files and available via the World Wide Web and CD-ROM. The research will train three new taxonomists in modern methods, developed and applied to spiders, during the course of the project.
