The files created for the Internet are the frameworks to which future documents can be
inserted or linked. Specific items completed are:
1. Illustrated key to the five arachnid orders occurring in the GSMNP: Araneae, Acari, Opiliones,
Pseudoscorpiones, and Scoropiones
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.
2. 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.
Cokendolpher contacted museum curators arranging for loans of material of opilionids and
pseudoscorpions collected from the Park. He also contacted, with negative results, several
acarologists, in an effort to locate someone interested in working on the Acari of the GSMNP
checklist. He borrowed slide mounted examples of all genera of pseudoscorpions from the Park
region and started obtaining relevant literature on members of this order. He also perfected a
method for using a digital camera on a microscope for preparing images to be used on
the Internet.
GOALS FOR THE NEAR TERM
Spider Inventory
Coyle expects to finish identifying all spiders by the end of 2000. Then he will complete
database entry, place the database on the Internet, and begin producing the electronic and hardcopy
identification guide to the spiders of the GSMNP. The database should be on the Internet by the
end of 2001. The guide will probably require several years to complete.
Opilionid, Pseudoscorpion, and Scorpion Inventory and Arachnid Web Page
Construction
Cokendolpher's goals (contingent upon the availability of funds) include the following:
Continue to contact acarologists in an effort to locate researchers interested in working on the Acari
of the GSMNP. Continue to contact museums looking for additional material collected within the
Park. Obtain an account through Pickering so that files can be added directly to the DLIA
WebPages. Continue to update the checklist already on the DLIA WebPages. Refine keys already
on the DLIA WebPages, with emphasis on substituting labeled photographs for drawings. Add
keys to the species of opilionids and pseudoscorpions in the Park. Set up architecture for the
arachnid section of DLIA WebPages so that future pages will have page-holders/links established.
(The arachnids are one of the most numerous classes in the Park and the data should be setup in a
logical fashion from the start or it will be hopelessly confusing in a few years.) Start work on
species accounts of opilionids, pseudoscorpions, and scorpions. Prepare a web page discussing
bark traps and the preliminary results from the planned August 2000 sampling. Sort GSMNP litter
samples housed at the Field Museum of Natural History. Continue sorting of the 400+ 1-meter
square litter samples collected by Coyle. Re-sort some (or all if necessary) of the 30 samples
previously sorted by Shear to see if the tiny (under 1 mm) pseudoscorpions were overlooked or
just absent. Start identifications of the pseudoscorpions; continue identifications of all harvestmen
and scorpions. Make preliminary counts of all taxa and numbers obtained from bark traps during
the planned August 2000 sampling effort.
Cokendolpher hopes to travel to GSMNP and conduct research for 2-3 weeks during late
July and August 2000. He will examine specimens in museum collection at the GSMNP and work
with students from San Francisco State University (Wildlands Study Program) during part of their
stay in the Park. With their assistance, he will photograph living specimens for use on species
pages, hand collect under rocks, logs, and in mosses and other smaller habitats missed by Coyle's
litter sampling, hand collect night-active arachnids with UV and headlights, collect numerous
samples with corrugated cardboard bark traps, obtain data on the effectiveness of this method of
collecting in a variety of forest types (hopefully in ATBI Biodiversity Reference Points), and
collect litter samples from vacated animal nest, tree holes, and other cryptic habitats (These samples
will be processed by Tullgren or Berlese funnels).
NEEDS
Spider Inventory
Immediate (year 2000): A GSMNP staff biologist will need to mark, obtain GPS location
data, and characterize the vegetation of each of the 17 focal sites used in the spider survey.
Year 2001: Wages ($3000) for person to enter data into Biota database.
Opilionid, Pseudoscorpion, and Scorpion Inventory and Arachnid Web Page
Construction
Immediate (year 2000): Funding to cover Cokendolpher's laboratory and office hours spent on
this project (estimated: $5000-10000; total will determine the number of hours dedicated to this
project at $50/hour). Funding for Cokendolpher's trip to the GSMNP during July and August
(estimated $1960: lodging $45/day= $945; food $15/day=$315; travel $700). Miscellaneous
equipment needed (estimated $880: soft forceps for students, UV lights, headlamps for students,
batteries, litter concentrators, Berlese funnels, plastic and cloth bags, rolls of corrugated
cardboard, tape, GPS unit, topo maps, sorting trays.