Gustavo Hormiga, PI (George Washington University) and Gonzalo Giribet, co-PI (Harvard University)

Project Summary
We propose to train three systematic biologists (two Ph.D. students and one postdoc) in the study of a megadiverse group, spiders. The trainees, working in close collaboration with the PIs and several expert collaborators in four institutions, will monograph a number of araneoid spider taxa in the families Tetragnathidae and Mysmenidae. The phylogenetic component of these projects will use character evidence from morphology, behavior and DNA sequences. The taxonomic aspects of this research will make extensive use of computerization and web-based dissemination.
Our main goal is to train three taxonomic experts in several critically understudied groups of araneoid spiders. These trainees will receive state of the art education in systematic methods and will interact with a diversity of project collaborators and academic and research institutions. Their training will allow them in the future to carry out systematic research on any taxonomic group of spiders.
Nine genera within Tetragnathidae and two genera within Mysmenidae will be revised. We will reconstruct the phylogenetic relationships among the species of the target genera using morphological data. To the extent that specimens/observations are available we will also use behavioral and molecular characters. We also will reconstruct the phylogenetic structure of Tetragnathidae (using a broad and diverse taxonomic sample of tetragnathids from all major regions of the world, including the target genera) and of Mysmenidae (using a sample of species of all mysmenid genera). We will use morphological, molecular and behavioral characters to reconstruct relationships among genera. The results of these analyses will be used to provide a phylogenetic classification of Tetragnathidae and Mysmenidae.
The monographs and systematic data resulting from this research will be published in peer reviewed journals. In addition, we will use our project web site as an outlet to advertise our research and to disseminate some of its results. We will use our web site to make available the following on-line products: Interactive identification keys (species-level keys for all the tetragnathid and mysmenid genera monographed; neotropical genera of Tetragnathidae; and world genera of Mysmenidae), Digital Image Banks (of taxonomic images of the world genera of Tetragnathidae and Mysmenidae to assist with identification), Database of images of web architecture (with images hyperlinked to a file with the specimen voucher data) and Specimen databases for the monographed taxa.