Newsletter 1 - European Society of Arachnology

Newsletter of the European Society of Arachnology, (1) 2011
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After a pleasant and informal outdoor “Israeli meal”
(falafel with traditional pita-bread), arachnologists
went out at night, not for party & beer (this came
later, anyway), but for hunting scorpions and other
night-active animals.
The Bedouin tent on the way to Zin springs
Itai Opatovsky, Eran Gefen and Efrat Gavish-Regev
had the responsibility to take hundreds (or so it
seemed!) of arachnologists out in the Negev desert
at night, with glass tubes full of EtOH and plastic
cans in which, occasionally, any kind of animals
(invertebrates and vertebrates poisonous or not)
could be found. I personally collected/observed a
few species of scorpions (one of them Leiurus
quinquestriatus was actually the most dangerous
found in Israel, one Mediterranean gecko, a few
Lycosa, several gnaphosids and one roughtail rock
agama. I heard about discoveries of Idiops,
Latrodectus pallidus and L. revivensis and about the
observation of several snakes, including the frightful
black cobra of the Negev. Luckily nothing happened,
so everyone could proceed to the local IsoPub and
spend there the rest of the night, talking about what
was found – and what was not.
Day three began very early with the congress
excursions. Three programs were offered: Nature
tour, Adventurous hiking tour and Historic tour. I
personally took the Adventurous hiking tour in the
desert, that included a picturesque breakfast on the
top of Avdat highlands-plateau, a pleasing
coffee/tea in the desert, a refreshing dip into a
3x3x8 meters (where 8 is the depth) A'kev spring
(Ein Ak'ev) pool, a very adventurous return trip to
Midreshet Ben-Gurion in a 4x4 amazing truck and a
final chill out at the Neve Midbar SPA.
Almost half of the participants joined the Nature
tour that began with a view from the Halukim ridge
towards the Zin plateau, Hatira ridge, Avdat
highlands-plateau and the Zin cliffs. After a short
breakfast the group started the hike along the
archaeological ruins, and various arthropods were
encountered. After few hours of collecting the group
continued by bus to the very impressive oasis called
Avdat Spring (Ein Avdat) nature reserve for a
moderate hike. The historic tour–group started the
day a bit later and focused on life in the desert at
Avdat and Revivim. Avdat is the most important
historical city in the Negev on the Incense Route,
between the 7th and the 1st centuries BCE. Avdat
was inhabited by Nabataeans, Romans and
Byzantines and was declared a World Heritage Site
by UNESCO in 2005. Revivim is a Kibutz in the Negev,
established before the Israeli state as one of three
lookouts.
All three groups met for lunch at the Ramat Negev
research and Development farm. Some of us needed
siesta before joining the Pojtke Dinner and the
stronger enjoyed the SPA.
Sara Goodacre opened day four with a fascinating
talk on dispersal behaviour in agrobiont spiders. She
combined the study of genetics, microbiology and
ecology in an integrative extensive work that focuses
on endosymbiontic bacteria and their capacity to
reduce the tendency for aerial dispersal in female
spiders, but also, the sensitivity of spiders to
insecticides.
Agroecosystems were the focus of the following
symposium, chaired by Ferenc Samu, who also gave
a talk on the effect of intense grazing on spider
assemblages. Ecological processes like dispersal (Laia
Mestre), colonization, fragmentation, agriculture
intensification and habitat heterogeneity with
respect to forests (John Hermann, Roman Bucher),
agricultural landscapes (Peter Gajdoš, Yoni Gavish)
and crop fields (Itai Opatovsky, Valeria Hochman-
Adler) were the main topics of the session.
A small session chaired by Milan Řezáč on behaviour
and life history (Matjaž Gregorič and Simona Kralj-
Fiser) ended the morning session. Itai Opatovsky’s
talk was awarded the Oxford University Press
Student Award in Arachnid Ecology. Milan Řezáč also
chaired the first session of the afternoon, focused on
Ecology. Topics of the talks covered several aspects
of forest ecology, including influence of
management (Elvira Melnichnova, Pao Shen Huang)
and structural factors (Hsien Chun Liao) on spider
assemblages. Some new indices to characterize
ecological communities were outlined by Mauro
Paschetta and an interesting ecological model was
presented by Boris Leroy on the future distribution
of Dolomedes plantarius in respect of climate
change. Boris’s talk was awarded with the Yale
University Press Student Distinction Award in
Arachnology.
The morphology session was chaired by Dimitar
Dimitrov. Several aspects of arachnid morphology
where outlined, with special reference to wolf
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