Developing a New US - Spain Collaboration in Mygalomorph Spider Systematics and Conservation

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The purpose of this project is to catalyze a new set of collaborations and initiate a partnership with project PIs Jason Bond (Auburn University), Marshal Hedin (San Diego State University), and Brent Hendrixson (Millsaps College) and Miquel Arnedo, at the University of Barcelona in Spain. The project-planning trip to the Barcelona will bring together a group of investigators who have interests in the evolution, systematics, conservation, and taxonomy of mygalomorph spiders. The spider infraorder Mygalomorphae (trapdoor spiders, tarantulas, and their kin), are a biologically unique clade of early diverging spiders; many of its members are well known to non-arachnologists and include the world's largest (tarantulas), most venomous (Australian "funnel-web" spiders), and most long-lived spiders.The planning trip will focus on reviewing the status of mygalomorph classification to identify "problem" lineages, bring together all of the genetic data currently available with the aim of developing a more comprehensive set of molecular markers, develop a workflow for identifying a set of morphological character ontologies and a means by which to share morphological data, and formulate a general paradigm for evaluating species boundaries and conservation status. The planning trip will culminate in a 10-day collecting trip in the Andalusia region of Spain. In addition to developing a number of tangible outcomes to include a set of molecular markers for broad scale analyses of spider phylogeny, significant broader impacts of the project will involve training students (undergraduate, graduate and postdoctoral) in conceptual issues related to systematics, biodiversity conservation and evolutionary biology.