Announcing Occasional Paper #2

Article By: Johnica Morrow

In 2001, Cedar Point decided to publish the first of a series of papers describing the flora and fauna of the station and the surrounding regions.  The series was dubbed the "Occasional Papers of the Cedar Point Biological Station".  The first publication in this series was compiled by Dr. Charles R. Brown and Dr. Mary Bomberger Brown.  This publication was titled Birds of the Cedar Point Biological Station.

Since the first publication, Cedar Point has not published another paper in this series.  The running joke around the station has been that the Birds of Cedar Point Biological Station was one of the very occasional papers.  This summer, we decided to change that by publishing the second paper in the series.

It all started with my love for spiders.  While working on my master's degree at Midwestern State University (Wichita Falls, Texas), I was able to take a rarely offered class in spider biology.  In this class, termed Araneology, we not only learned how these amazing creatures function anatomically and ecologically, we also learned how to collect, curate, and identify them.  I partially took the class because I was afraid of spiders, and my mother always told me that knowledge is power.  It turns out she was right, as most mothers are.  Gaining an understanding of these creepy crawlies made them much less creepy.  I began to see the sheer brilliance and beauty of animals that are all too often killed because we fear them.

Upon arrival to CPBS, I found myself gazing in amazement at the spider diversity.  I wanted to read up on the spiders found here at the station, but no one had ever written a field guide or even documented the diversity here.  I started to collect them and I asked the station's associate director to order me an identification manual.  My hobby collecting turned into a desire to create a working scientific collection of these animals for the station.

As the summer crept on, I managed to collect 157 specimens representing at least 12 known families.  Midway through the summer, things got so busy that I didn't have time to collect and I never got to completely identify my spiders.  However, I did manage to take the time to write up the second paper in the very occasional papers series.  You can expect to see Spider Families of the Cedar Point Biological Station on CPBS shelves next summer at the latest.  You might even be able to swing by Jon Garbisch's office on City Campus for a copy in the next few months if he gets them to the printer soon!

The paper briefly covers each of the families encountered this summer and is intended to be expanded upon in the years to come.  The collection of spiders now exists as a permanent part of the CPBS Non-Insect Arthropod Collection.  Hopefully next summer myself, or perhaps someone more qualified, will be able to identify what we have and contribute to the growth of the collection with their own specimens.  Knowing what we have is an important part of understanding the ecosystems around the station.  Though it is not easy to find ways to fund biodiversity studies or curatorial scientists, it is important to do so.  

Today, the collection was created and will be maintained by volunteers, but perhaps in the future some small endowment will be created for students interested in museum studies or maybe even spider biology in general.  I would love to see my work continued by budding professionals just as I would love to see the growth of our station's scientific collections.  After all, good scientific collections and publications are the marks of great research stations, and we can all agree that Cedar Point Biological Station should remain amongst those considered great.  

To donate to our efforts in expanding our collections and keeping them maintained, please contact Jon Garbisch at cpbs@unl.edu. Thanks in advance for your support!