Ohio Spider Survey

"an effort to learn about spider diversity and ecology in Ohio"

Mission & Goals of the Ohio Spider Survey

The mission of the Ohio Spider Survey is to enhance our understanding of spiders in Ohio.

Implementation of this mission will be through pursuit of the following goals:

  Promote public education about spider biology and the importance of spiders to healthy ecosystems.

  Conduct surveys of spiders throughout Ohio to determine the status and distribution of spider species in the state.

  Develop resource materials, in a variety of media, for dissemination of information about spiders. This will include, although not be restricted to; print media, Internet, newsletters, books and pamphlets.

  Create and expand a database of spider records including those of voucher specimens, photographic records, and visual reports from schools, museums and private collections.

  Create a clearinghouse for information about spiders that is available to the public.

  Expand and maintain the Ohio Spider Collection. This collection is the Araneae of the Ohio State University Entomology Collection, Acarology section, currently housed at the Museum of Biodiversity, 1315 Kinnear Road, Columbus, Ohio.

Rationale

No state-wide survey of spider diversity in Ohio has been published since Dr. William M. Barrows' work between 1918 and 1924. Dr. Barrows was a Professor of Zoology and Entomology at Ohio State way back when the two departments were one. His inventory is now seriously out-of-date; for example, Barrows lists fewer than one-half of the currently-recognized species likely present in Ohio. The Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Division of Wildlife has provided initial funding for a new survey of spiders in our state through the Do Something Wild! state income tax check-off program.

The aim of the current Ohio Spider Survey is to fill the major gap in our understanding of natural spider communities in Ohio. The initial phase of this project includes a survey of already-existing collections of spiders, as well as a review of recently published Ohio records. Also, participants will be obtaining systematic samples at an at-first limited number of sites, with the anticipation of expanding in the future to include collections from all major habitat types across the state. The collections will be permanently housed at the Museum of Biological Diversity , The Ohio State University.

Such an ambitious project necessitates the involvement and efforts of many volunteers. I would welcome the donations of any spider specimens from Ohio, and I am particularly interested in receiving those that include basic data; that is, collector, habitat, date, and locality. You can collect your specimens directly into 70% ethyl alcohol. Isopropyl (rubbing ) alcohol can be used, but it is less desirable for a number of reasons. In addition, I could also use good-quality, close-up color slides. Although many spider species cannot be properly determined from photographs, the slides would nevertheless be of use to me in the public education projects which I plan to implement in association with the Survey. If you are interested is contributing your specimens, slides, or time to this effort, please feel free to contact me:

Dr. Richard A. Bradley, Associate Professor

Department of Evolution, Ecology, and Organismal Biology

1465 Mt. Vernon Ave. Marion, OH 43302

Phone (740) 389-2361 FAX (614) 292-5817
E-mail: Bradley.10@osu.edu

Web pages: Research Interests and Dr. Richard Bradley

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to Why Study Biodiversity?

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last revised 22 June 2001 / prepared by Clay Harris