PEET: Monographic Research in Araneoid Spider Systematics

9712353霍尔米加蜘蛛数量众多，分布广泛，对人类事务有直接影响。大约有30种蜘蛛毒液会造成医学上重要的咬伤；更广泛地说，蜘蛛毒液被用于医学和药物研究。蜘蛛丝具有非凡的物理性能；蚕丝及其成分是生物技术研究的焦点，具有可能的商业应用。蜘蛛还调节自然和农业环境中的昆虫数量。然而，对蜘蛛多样性和生物学的了解还不够充分。科学界已知的物种约为3.6万种，不到地球上已知物种数量的一半。热带和南半球温带地区的动物群是最鲜为人知的。即使对于所描述的物种，在很大程度上也缺乏准确的识别手册、检索表、专著和系统发育分析。在这项Peet提案中，Gustavo HorMica、John Coddington和他的同事将通过对蜘蛛类(蜘蛛目)蜘蛛的三个亚科(Linyphiidae；Therdiidae；Tetragnathidae)进行专题研究，来改善蜘蛛分类的状况。专题研究将利用博物馆和野外采集的标本来描述新物种，编制物种检索表，重建物种之间的系统发育关系，并开发一个连接文本、数据和图像文件的计算机化信息系统，可通过万维网和光盘获得。这项研究将在项目过程中培训三名新的分类学家使用现代方法，开发并应用于蜘蛛。

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.