LinEpig

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LinEpig

• My Subfamily Album

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• Some very preliminary imaging of erigonine epigyna

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• My friend Elizabeth volunteers at the museum. One
  day she sent me some pictures of hahniids...

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• I took these through the eyepiece with my
  digital camera, she wrote.

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• Immediately I thought of ...

Linyphiidae.
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Linyphiidae

• Small, diverse and problematic
• Often considered hard to
  identify, especially the females
• Worldwide, second in described species, but No. 1
  by number of genera
• Account for gt ¼ of all spider species
  in the Midwest, and gt 30
  in Canada

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Agyneta barrowsi
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Female spider anatomy
http//www.nmnh.si.edu/highlight/sem/highlight/spi
ders/spiders.htm
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Agyneta barrowsi

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Agyneta barrowsi
A. barrowsi photo Chamberlin Ivie 1944
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My Subfamily Erigoninae

• The erigonines account for 90 of linyphiid
  diversity. In North America, there are 107 genera
  with 952 species.

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Female erigonines are the only North American
spiders with no key to genus
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The liniphiid flipbooks

• Atlas of Southeastern Linyphiidae
• Atlas of Eastern North American Linyphiidae
• Atlas of North American Linyphiidae (?)

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CanonPowershot A 610
5.0 megapixel 129
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Microscopy equipment
Olympus SZ-10 research stereo scope
Q-Color 3 USB digital camera attachment using QI
imaging camera (TWAIN) plug-in
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My protocol

• Clean and distinct specimen
• Clean alcohol, chilled
• Fine black sand
• Watch glass on a margarine lid
• Minimize vibration
• Work quickly before alcohol
  heats up

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Eperigone maculata
( Mermessus maculatus)
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Eperigone maculata
( Mermessus maculatus)
LinEpig Crosby Bishop 1928
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Eridantes erigonoides
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Eridantes erigonoides
LinEpig Crosby Bishop 1933
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Hypselistes florens
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Hypselistes florens
LinEpig Crosby Bishop 1933
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Hypselistes florens
Atlas of Southeastern Linyphiidae, M Draney 2004
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Tapinocyba simplex
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Tapinocyba simplex
LinEpig Crosby Bishop 1933
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Erigone dentosa
LinEpig Atlas of Southeastern Linyphiidae
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Spirembolus
S. erratus S. hibernus
S. novellus S. pusilus
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Picasa
Googles photo sharing site
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LinEpig
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Eperigone tridentata
( Mermessus tridentatus)
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Social networking
Photo-sharing albums let us post, share and
search across what are essentially our
microscope field notes.
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Map Location
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Georeferencing
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Why do this?

• Recognizable images of tiny specimens
• Positive aid in identification
• Reasonable time and resource expenditure
• Readily sharable

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Frustrations

• Images are a bit fuzzy, and glare-y
• We have only imaged a small fraction of whats
  out there

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Whats next

• We think it should be possible to get much
  clearer definition by compositing even just 2-3
  images.
• We will be glad to receive any useful feedback.
• We hope that some of our colleagues will be
  willing to lend us their IDd erigonines long
  enough to have their pictures taken.

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Wishlist...
Floricoumus rostratus Idionella
formosa Origanates rostratus
Paracornicularia bicapillata
Pelecopsidis frontalis Sisicottus
montigenus
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• http//picasaweb.google.com/nina.sandlin/LinEpig
  
• Nina SandlinSpiders - ZoologyThe Field
  Museum1400 South Lake Shore Drive Chicago, IL
  60605-2496 USA nsandlin_at_fieldmusuem.org

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Thanks

• Petra Sierwald, Kevin Pitz, Elizabeth Simmons
  Field Museum, Chicago
• Michael Draney UW Green Bay
• Rod Crawford Burke Museum, UW Seattle
• Robert Edwards Woods Hole, Mass.
• Efrat Gavish Mitrani Dept of Desert Ecology,
  Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel

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