Field Guide to the Spiders of South Africa, by Ansie Dippenaar-Schoeman

Field Guide to the Spiders of South Africa, by Ansie Dippenaar-Schoeman. Penguin Random House South Africa. Imprint: Struik Nature. 2nd revised edition. Cape Town, South Africa 2023. ISBN 9781775847977 / ISBN 978-1-77-584797-7

Field Guide to the Spiders of South Africa, by Ansie Dippenaar-Schoeman features over 780 of the more common spider species encountered in the field, homes and gardens, as well as representative species from some of the rarer spider families.

PREFACE

This Field Guide to the Spiders of South Africa is a product of the South African National Survey of Arachnida (SANSA). It was initiated in 1997 to meet the requirements of the Convention on Biological Diversity, which arose from the United Nations Conference on the Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Signatories are obliged to develop a strategic plan for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity. The main aims of this national project are to document and describe the arachnid fauna of South Africa; to make this biodiversity information available to science; and to address issues concerning arachnid conservation. Extensive sampling took place in a variety of locations throughout the country, and the SANSA database contains a wealth of data that are used to provide answers to ecological and taxonomic questions. This is an exciting time in the study of spiders. DNA research has enabled a massive overhaul of spider classification. This revised edition of Field Guide to the Spiders of South Africa reflects these changes and remains the most comprehensive guide to South African spiders to date. Since the publication of the first Field Guide to the Spiders of South Africa in 2014, several new families have been described: Bemmeridae, Entypesidae, Euagridae, Ischnothelidae, Pycnothelidae, Stasimopidae, Cheiracanthiidae and Trachelidae. Other families have been merged, and many genera and species have been added, reclassified or renamed. The taxonomy and classification used in this guide follows that of The World Spider Catalog (Version 22.5., Natural History Museum Bern, online at http://wsc.nmbe.ch). Many classifications are still to be resolved, however, and this book is sure to be revised even further as new data become available. The digital camera and macro-photography have opened a new world for science. The beautiful colours, intricate webs and interesting behaviour of spiders are now documented daily. I hope this Field Guide to the Spiders of South Africa will influence and stimulate photographers to record our spider fauna so that that we will eventually have an image of every species in the country. At present 72 spider families and 2,282 species are known from South Africa. It is impossible to capture all of these species in one book. Instead, representative genera and species have been chosen to give the reader an overview of South African spider diversity and to enable the identification of the more common spiders encountered in the field and in and around the home. To give serious spider watchers a comprehensive overview of all known South African spiders, a series of online Spider Photo Identification Guides have been prepared for each of the 72 families. These contain information on all known genera and species. The guides are free and can be requested from the author or downloaded from several sites, including Zenodo at https://zenodo.org/communities/sansa/. (Ansie Dippenaar-Schoeman)

WHAT ARE SPIDERS?

All spiders belong to the phylum Arthropoda, a name meaning 'jointed legs'. This diverse group of terrestrial, marine and aquatic organisms includes insects, crustaceans, millipedes and centipedes. The subphylum Chelicerata falls within Arthropoda and comprises the class Arachnida, which includes all animals with eight walking legs, as well as the marine Pycnogonida (sea spiders) and Merostomata (horseshoe crabs). Arachnida is a diverse group of primarily terrestrial arthropods, and is represented by 11 extant orders. Arachnids are second only to insects in abundance and diversity among the terrestrial animals. The following orders are known from South Africa: Acari (mites and ticks), Amblypygi (whip spiders), Araneae (spiders), Opiliones (harvestmen), Palpigradi (micro whip-scorpions), Pseudoscorpiones (false scorpions), Scorpiones (scorpions) and the Solifugae (wind spiders). [...]

This is an extract from Field Guide to the Spiders of South Africa, by Ansie Dippenaar-Schoeman.

Title: Field Guide to the Spiders of South Africa
Authors: Ansie Dippenaar-Schoeman
Publisher: Penguin Random House South Africa
Imprint: Struik Nature
2nd revised edition. Cape Town, South Africa 2023
ISBN 9781775847977 / ISBN 978-1-77-584797-7
Softcover, 15 x 21 cm, 400 pages, throughout colour photographs and distribution maps