Marc A. Milne

The habitus view of a female specimen of Scotinella pennimani.

The epigynum of the female of Scotinella pennimani.

RE-DISCOVERY #3

Scotinella pennimani Platnick and Chamé-Vázquez, 2024 (Phrurolithidae) was described just last year from specimens collected in 1967 (58 years ago). We found this lady in Okefenokee NWR on Trembling Earth Nature Trail just north of Stephen C. Foster State Park in SE Georgia.

Introduce yourself with 5 animals you've seen in the wild:

[this spider has no common name]
[this spider has no common name]
[this spider has no common name]
[this spider has no common name]
[this spider has no common name]

Also featuring the incredible @mhedin.bsky.social and Kefyn Catley!

Ceratinopsis sutoris (Linyphiidae) male spider - dorsal view.

Ceratinopsis sutoris (Linyphiidae) female spider - dorsal view.

RE-DISCOVERY #2

Our trip to Okefenokee NWR has resulted in another re-discovery of a long-lost species. Ceratinopsis sutoris Bishop & Crosby 1930 was last seen in 1927 (98 years ago!) and we collected several males and females. The species has a orange-red carapace with black around the eyes.

Even a blind squirrel finds a nut every now and then!

A dorsal view of the male of Ceratinopsis bona. Red carapace with black around the eyes, a pink abdomen, and yellow legs with tibia IV black.

A dorsal view of the female of Ceratinopsis bona. Red carapace with black around the eyes, a pink abdomen, and yellow legs with tibia IV black.

RE-DISCOVERY #1!

Our trip to Okefenokee NWR has already resulted in a re-discovery of a long-lost species. Ceratinopsis bona Chamberlin & Ivie, 1944 was last seen in 1943, 82 years ago. In addition to possessing genitalia that match the descriptions, their black tibia IVs are also diagnostic.

The lateral view of a shiny black green and gold beetle.

A shiny beetle collected from tall grass on Billy's Island in the middle of Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, Georgia.

Yeah, but like, is it really Centromerus? That genus has not been revised. It would be interesting to see genetic data.

Wow! "Centromerus" perhaps? That epigynum is wild.

Mostly a surprise when we get home. But we did catch a few carabids!

Day 4 of our Okefenokee NWF collecting trip took us to Mixons Hammock east of Stephen C Foster State Park. We canoed the two miles and then sampled mossy patches and magnolia litter in cypress swamps. Not the most productive, but we found many linyphiids for study.

Day 3 of our collecting trip was to the east side of Okefenokee NWF (a 1.5hr drive around the southern edge) where we collected in swampy thatch/moss patches along the Chesser Island boardwalk. Found lots of erigonines, a pygmy rattlesnake, and a water moccasin. Didn't collect the snakes, though. 🙂

We are attempting to rediscover a few lost species.

Day 2 of our Okefenokee spider collecting trip went well. We were joined by Brett Tyler, a spider enthusiast at Georgia DNR. To collect, we vacuumed under Sphagnum moss mats and among Cypress knees in wet swamps and jumped off of boardwalks to get to emergent wetland vegetation. Long, tiring day.

We saw plenty of gators. Paddled right by a few. No snakes...yet.

Day 1 of our Okefenokee NWF trip completed. We canoed to Billy's Island (~2mi.), collected spiders all day via litter sift and vacuum, and canoed back to camp. Very productive and hopefully we collected some lost species.

Thanks! Jackson gave me the run down of what to collect add far as millipedes are concerned.

@tyuge.bsky.social and @derekhennen.bsky.social - I have successfully gotten the permit changed to "arthropods!"

Noooo idea. All we know about this species is what it looks like and its name, like most linyphiids. 😫 We'll be searching on Billy's Island, though, so hopefully it's a bit more widespread within the park.

What's extra interesting here is that the males of every other species in this genus not only lacks spines like these, but, in its place possesses soft patches of microsetae. Could these stout spines be mimicking the function of soft microsetae patches? It seems unlikely?

One of the most interesting morphological quirks of this spider is a character I have never seen in any other spider, regardless of taxonomic family, and that is the presence of two stout spines on the male clypeus. The clypeus is on the "face" just below the anterior eyes, above the chelicerae.

The female allotype of Floricomus setosus. A tiny brown and gray spider with a small scutum (shield) on its anterior part of its abdomen.

A fourth spider we're searching for at Okefenokee NWF later this month is Floricomus setosus. This tiny spider was last collected 82 years ago, in 1943 and was previously found "E. side of Okefenokee Swamp" in 1933. Only one male and two females have ever been collected.

As many as are necessary to get to the truth!

I identified a second specimen in the FMNH collection a few years ago from northern Florida, collected by Larry Watrous 58 years later in 1980 from "leaf litter around a pond margin."

The female is still unknown, so it would be excellent to find and collect both together to pair up those sexes.

A third spider we'll be searching for in Okefenokee Swamp is Floricomus floricomus. A tiny, 1.5mm spider with a distinct plumose setae-covered horn on the head of males, this spider was first discovered in 1922 when it was CUT OUT OF THE STOMACH OF A TOAD that was hopping around in Okefenokee Swamp.

Oh my lord! That's terrible.

That male was collected in 1912. The female wasn't found until 1943, near Sylvania, 144mi N of the swamp. Even more concerning is that the female was not collected with a male so how did Chamberlin and Ivie know it was this species? 🤷‍♂️Dubious. Hopefully we find both sexes in one catch to be certain.

Another spider we are searching for on our Okefenokee NWF journey is Idionella titivillitium. It was first collected in 1912 on Billy's Island at the edge of the swamp, which is where we are traveling to in late October. It was collected, "by sifting decaying leaves in dense shade at edge of swamp."

Illustrations of the male palp (left) and female epigynum (right) of Ceratinopsis bona from Chamberlin and Ivie (1944).

One of the spiders we are searching for on our Okefenokee NWF trip later this month is Ceratinopsis bona. Described from southeastern Georgia, this specimen hasn't been seen since it was collected for that description in 1943. It is reddish brown with black around the eyes with a gray abdomen.

Okay I will see if I can just change the permit to "arthropods."