Australasian arachnology, Number 82, August 2011
- Welcome to Issue 82 of Australasian
Arachnology. The last six months have been
extremely productive for the Australasian
Arachnological Society, with nine new
members and numerous new papers being
published by existing AAS members. It is
wonderful to see such a dynamic and growing
membership, and to witness the continuing
fascination elicited by our remarkable arachnid
fauna. Indeed, since the beginning of 2011, over
50 new species of arachnids have been
described from Australasia, including pseudoscorpions
and numerous spiders in the families
Selenopidae, Archaeidae, Amaurobiidae, Tetragnathidae
and Araneidae. The sheer diversity
of undescribed arachnid species in Australasia
has always posed a challenge to systematists
and ecologists, but major attempts are being
made to document the fauna. Take, for example,
Pinkfloydia, a new genus of Tetragnathidae
recently described from Western
Australia!