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177
DENVER MUSEUM OF NATURE & SCIENCE
REPORTS
|
No. 3, July 2, 2016
progress in understanding the diversity of extension mech-
anisms in arachnids will depend on integrating studies of
phylogeny, biomechanics and patterns of muscle activity.
Keywords: kinematics, locomotion, biomechanics,
morphology
Student - oral presentation
Occupancy & locomotor behavior in
Schizocosa ocreata
: preliminary analysis
& visualization in R
*Salvatore A. Sidoti
1
, J. Andrew Roberts
2
1
The Ohio State University, Department of Evolution,
Ecology & Organismal Biology, Columbus, OH, USA;
2
The
Ohio State University at Newark, Department of Evolu-
tion, Ecology, & Organismal Biology, Newark, OH, USA
sidoti.23@osu.eduIn many experimental designs, researchers are interested
in tracking and quantifying the movement and/or behav-
ior of animal subjects. Several systems are available for
purchase that are capable of such tracking (e.g., Ethovi-
sion
©
by Noldus), but those systems are often proprietary
and expensive. We used BuriTrack, an open-source video
capture application, as a base system for capturing spider
movements and digitizing their location within an arena
on a very fine scale relative to time. In our preliminary
studies, 15-minute open field exploration trials each
generated a robust data set including thousands of time-
stamped x, y coordinates. Unfortunately, BuriTrack is not
capable of converting positional information into distance
or speed calculations, nor is it able to statistically examine
the differences between experimental treatments. We used
R, an open source software program, to build script that
is able to automatically convert position and time data to
more meaningful forms included travel distance, mean
travel direction, “burst” speed, proportion of time engaged
in thigmotaxis, and visualization of arena occupancy
via spatial histograms. Many of these functions are not
included in base R or found in any of its packages. The R
scripts we developed will be made freely available to the sci-
entific community for verification and further development.
Keywords: R programming, temporospatial analysis,
video capture, open source
Student - oral presentation
Systematics of the “MPME clade” and the
phylogeny of Linyphiidae (Araneae)
*Thiago Silva-Moreira, Gustavo Hormiga
Department of Biological Sciences, The George Wash-
ington University, 2023 G Street NW, Washington DC.
20052, USA
tmoreira@gwmail.gwu.eduDespite a considerable number of recent studies, the
higher level phylogeny of Linyphiidae as well as its
immediate sister group relationships are still conten-
tious. While some relationships are well established,
such as the monophyly of Mynoglenines and Erigo-
nines, and the position of
Stemonyphantes
as the
sister group of clade that includes all other linyphiids,
much of the phylogenetic structure of this large family
remains poorly understood. This study focuses on
the relationships of linyphiids with emphasis on the
Linyphiini (sensu Millidge). We will report the results of
phylogenetic analyses of linyphiid relationships based
both on molecular data from five genetic markers (16S,
18S, 28S, COI, and H3) and morphological characters.
Keywords: systematics, morphology, molecular, Linyphi-
idae, Araneoidea
Student - poster presentation
Revision and phylogenetic placement of the
genera
Jalapyphantes
and
Selenyphantes
(Araneae, Linyphiidae)
Thiago Silva-Moreira, Gustavo Hormiga
Department of Biological Sciences, The George Wash-
ington University, 2023 G Street NW, Washington DC.
20052, USA
tmoreira@gwmail.gwu.eduThe monotypic genus
Selenyphantes
Gertsch & Davis,
1946 is known only from Guatemala and Mexico.
Jalapyphantes
Gertsch & Davis, 1946 comprises four
species
J. cuernavaca, J. minorata
and
J. puebla
(from Mexico) and
J. obscurus
(from Colombia). With
the exception of
J. cuernavaca
(the type species) all
other
Jalapyphantes
species are described based only
20
th
International Congress of Arachnology