| dc.contributor.author | Holmberg, Robert G. | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2010-06-23T16:52:07Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2010-06-23T16:52:07Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2010-06-23T16:52:07Z | |
| dc.identifier.other | 17th International Congress of Arachnology Conference in Sao Pedro, Brazil, August 4-13, 2007 | |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/2149/2568 | |
| dc.description | The 17th International Congress of Arachnology was held in São Pedro Brazil between 5 and10 August. It was the largest gathering of arachnologists ever held. The congress attracted about 320 persons from 34 countries. There were 5 plenary talks, 7 symposia (each with up to a half-dozen talks), 115 short oral presentations and 259 posters. Because of the large number of talks, there were usually 2, sometimes 3, concurrent sessions. As usual, spider topics dominated the sessions. However, rather than the usual half-dozen or fewer harvestmen-workers, there were close to 40. The vast majority of these came from Brazilian universities and research institutions. More than half were students. The number of female arachnologists is increasing. About half of the new students were female.
Three Canadians attended the congress; Wayne Maddison of the University of British Columbia, Maxim Larrivée of McGill University, and myself.
About 50 people attended my presentation on the harvestmen of Canada. It was well received. One of my Brazilian colleagues lamented how unfortunate we were in having less than 50 species in Canada compared with the more than 600 from Brazil!
As usual I was able to renew acquaintances with old colleagues and meet new ones. A Mexican colleague is looking at reanalyzing some of my data on Togwoteeus biceps for a possible new publication on sexual differences. An American colleague will be sending me some specimens from Eastern North America to help me identify species with which I am not that familiar. I solicited help from two American colleagues to get behavioural data on an eastern species that overwinters in mines and caves, similar to the one I studied in western North America.
In general the conference increased my knowledge of arachnids and renewed my enthusiasm for finishing my various incomplete projects on arachnids. I thank the committee for helping me attend this conference.
Attached is my PowerPoint presentation. | en |
| dc.description.abstract | Harvestmen are the third largest Order of Arachnida. Biological information, other than morphology used for taxonomy, is very limited. Canada has at least 43 species, mostly Euponi (Caddidae 3, Phalangiidae 12, Sclerosomatidae 17). Nine species are Dyspnoi (Ceratolasmatidae 1, Ischyropsalidae 2, Nemastomatidae 3, Sabaconidae 3). Only two are Laniatores (Triaenonychidae). Six species (mostly Phalangiidae) are probably introduced from Europe. Distributions and life history information will be given for selected species. | en |
| dc.description.sponsorship | Academic & Professional Development Fund (A&PDF) | en |
| dc.language.iso | en | en |
| dc.relation.ispartofseries | 92.927.G985; | |
| dc.subject | Harvestmen of Canada | en |
| dc.subject | Opiliones | en |
| dc.title | Harvestmen of Canada | en |
| dc.type | Presentation | en |
