Summary Report of Results of Project Funded by DLIA Seed Grant

Project Title: Pilot Study for Selected Arachnids
Researcher:
James C. Cokendolpher
2007 29th Street
Lubbock, Texas 79411
ph/fax 806-744-0318
E-mail: Cokendolpher@aol.com
TWIG: Non-acarine Arachnida
Date Funded: 1 September 1999
Funding amount: $5000
Report submitted: 1 December 1999

All points mentioned in the original project proposal were started this fall. The study consisted of two parts: 1) the sorting and identification of previously collected samples of arachnids and 2) preparing Internet pages presenting data about these specimens and the arachnids in general. The original proposal budgeted 96 hours for the project. The actual time spent was 105 hours, the extra time being devoted to sorting litter samples and identifying pitfall sample specimens.

Thirty-two 1 meter sq. litter samples collected by Fred Coyle and his spider survey team were
sorted and the Opiliones (harvestmen), Pseudoscorpiones, and Scorpiones were removed and labeled. The harvestmen and scorpions were identified. Members of these same two orders were also identified from an additional 30 1 meter sq. litter samples collected by Coyle's team and previously sorted by William Shear. The pseudoscorpions have been segregated but not identified yet. Specimens from a few dozen other litter samples collected by Fred Coyle and Robb Bennett were also identified as well as all recent collections of harvestmen collected by Will Reeves in caves in the GSMNP. Identifications were also made of harvestmen collected primarily in pitfall traps by Fred Hain and Felton Hastings during their 1995-1996 survey of the arthropods from GSMNP hemlock sites.

A significant number of files were created for the DLIA webpage. Altogether 84 files were sent to be loaded on the DLIA site. Sixty-three of these files were graphics files, which included many photographs. The last of these files were sent to John Pickering on 23 November, but by the date of this writing, they had not been added to the WWW. The earlier files are now on the DLIA web site under "checklist." I hope that after all the rush of the holidays the new files can be added to the site by Dr. Pickering's staff. A copy of the files was also sent December 2 on CD-ROM to John Morse so that they can be viewed during the December DLIA meeting.

The files created for the Internet are the frameworks to which future documents can be inserted or linked. Specific items completed are:

(a)Illustrated key to the five arachnid orders occurring in the GSMNP: Araneae, Acari,
Opiliones, Pseudoscorpiones, and Scoropiones

(b) Illustrated keys to the suborders, families, and genera of Opiliones, Pseudoscorpiones, and Scorpiones known to occur in North Carolina and Tennessee with notes on those taxa known or suspected of occurring in the GSMNP.

(c) Checklists of Opiliones, Pseudoscorpiones, and Scorpiones known from North Carolina and Tennessee with notations as to which taxa have been recorded from the GSMNP. A checklist (based on data supplied by Fred Coyle) of the 461 species of Araneae currently known from the GSMNP was completed. A page was setup for the Acari, but this was simply a placeholder as no checklist has thus far been prepared.