Global Survey and Inventory of Solifugae

PERSONNEL
 

Senior Personnel:

• Coordinated by Paula E. Cushing (DMNS) and Lorenzo Prendini (AMNH)

• Three specialists will assist with research, training and internet dissemination:
  Jack O. Brookhart (DMNS); Robert A. Wharton (TAMU); Warren E. Savary (CAS).

Collaborators:

The following colleagues working on Solifugae or interested in solifuge research indicated their support and willingness to assist the project:

• Luis de Armas (Instituto de Ecología y Sistemática, Havana)

• Tomás Cekalovic, retired solifuge specialist in Concepciòn

• Jorge Cepeda (Universidad de La Serena; ULS)

• Ansie Dippenaar (National Collection of Arachnida, Pretoria)

• Hisham El-Hennawy (Arachnid Collection of Egypt, Caïro)

• Oscar Francke (Universidad Nacional Autonoma de México; UNAM)

• Ian Gordon (International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology, Nairobi; ICIPE)

• Mark Harvey (Western Australian Museum, Perth)

• Ahmet and Aysegül Karatas (Nigde University, Turkey; NU),

• Jirí Král (Charles University, Prague)

• Leon Lotz (National Museum, Bloemfontein)

• Yael Lubin (Ben Gurion University, Israel)

• Alfredo Peretti (Universidad Nacional de Cordoba)

• Jaime Pizarro (Universidad de La Serena; ULS)

• Stefan Richter (Universität Rostock; UR)

• Charles Warui (National Museums of Kenya, Nairobi; NMK)

• Sergei Zonstein (National Collection of Arthropods, Tel Aviv University)

• Spider Club of Southern Africa

• South African Reptile Conservation Assessment (SARCA)

Trainees:

Two postdoctoral fellows, five PhD students and three MS students from seven countries will be involved.

• Anja Klann, a postdoc at Universität Greifswald: will investigate ultrastructure of genitalia and spermatozoa across the major groups of Solifugae.

• Christian Wirkner, a postdoc at UR: will use corrosion-casting and 3D-reconstruction to study the circulatory and respiratory systems of Solifugae.

• Tharina Bird, Curator of Arachnida, National Museum of Namibia, Windhoek (NMNW), will conduct her PhD degree at Colorado State University, cosupervised by Cushing: will revise the systematics of Solpugidae.

• Alexander Gromov, a solifuge specialist at the Institute of Zoology, Almaty, Kazakhstan will complete his PhD: will survey the central Asian solifuge fauna, and revise the family Rhagodidae.

• Kristie Reddick (TAMU) will conduct an MS with Wharton: will investigate relative percentages of diurnal vs. nocturnal species, compare foraging and reproductive behavior among different families and genera to determine phylogenetically informative characters, and evaluate function of sexually dimorphic characters.

• Halil Koç, PhD student, Ege University, Turkey: will provide samples for DNA isolation, and will participate in and assist with logistics for fieldwork in Turkey.

• Samuel Mwangi, MS student at Africa Nazarene University, Nairobi: will assist with fieldwork in Kenya.

• Andres Ojanguren, PhD student at Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales, Buenos Aires: will assist with fieldwork in Argentina.

• Andrea González-Reyes, PhD student at Universidad Nacional de Salta: will assist with fieldwork and samples from Argentina.

• Undergraduates will be involved in fieldwork, sorting, identification, collecting meristic data, digital imaging, and georeferencing through the Research Experiences for Undergraduates program at the AMN, the Undergraduate Research Problems at TAMU, through collaborator Francke at UNAM; and through collaborators Cepeda and Pizarro at ULS.

• High school students will participate via high school education programs: DMNS Active Teens of the Museum, AMNH High School Science Research Internships, and EduVentures, and under Reddick's supervision at NMK.

• Volunteers will be involved in sorting, databasing and identification at DMNS and AMNH.