1. LinEpig My Subfamily Album

2. Some very preliminary imaging of erigonine epigyna

3. My friend Elizabeth volunteers at the museum. One day she sent me some pictures of hahniids...

4. “I took these through the eyepiece with my digital camera,” she wrote.

5. Immediately I thought of... Linyphiidae.

6. Linyphiidae Small, diverse and problematic Often considered hard to identify, especially the females Worldwide, second in described species, but No. 1 by number of genera Account for > ¼ of all spider species in the Midwest, and > 30% in Canada

7. Agyneta barrowsi

8. Female spider anatomy http://www.nmnh.si.edu/highlight/sem/highlight/spiders/spiders.htm

9. Agyneta barrowsi

10. A. barrowsi photo Chamberlin & Ivie 1944

11. My Subfamily: Erigoninae The erigonines account for 90% of linyphiid diversity. In North America, there are 107 genera with 952 species.

12. Female erigonines are the only North American spiders with no key to genus

13. Atlas of Southeastern Linyphiidae Atlas of Eastern North American Linyphiidae Atlas of North American Linyphiidae (?) The liniphiid “flipbooks”

14. CanonPowershot A 610 5.0 megapixel $129

15. Microscopy equipment Olympus SZ-10 research stereo scope Q-Color 3 USB digital camera attachment using QI imaging camera (TWAIN) plug-in

16. “My protocol” Clean and distinct specimen Clean alcohol, chilled Fine black sand Watch glass on a margarine lid Minimize vibration Work quickly before alcohol heats up

17. Eperigone maculata (= Mermessus maculatus)

18. Eperigone maculata LinEpigCrosby & Bishop 1928 (= Mermessus maculatus)

19. Eridantes erigonoides

20. LinEpigCrosby & Bishop 1933

21. Hypselistes florens

22. LinEpigCrosby & Bishop 1933

23. Hypselistes florens Atlas of Southeastern Linyphiidae, M Draney 2004

24. Tapinocyba simplex

25. LinEpigCrosby & Bishop 1933

26. Erigone dentosa LinEpig Atlas of Southeastern Linyphiidae

27. Spirembolus S. erratusS. hibernus S. novellusS. pusilus

28. Picasa Google’s photo sharing site

29. LinEpig

30. Eperigone tridentata (= Mermessus tridentatus)

31. Social networking Photo-sharing albums let us post, share and search across what are essentially our “microscope field notes.”

32. Map Location

33. Georeferencing

34. Why do this? Recognizable images of tiny specimens Positive aid in identification Reasonable time and resource expenditure Readily sharable

35. Frustrations Images are a bit fuzzy, and glare-y We have only imaged a small fraction of what’s out there

36. What’s next  We think it should be possible to get much clearer definition by compositing even just 2-3 images.  We will be glad to receive any useful feedback.  We hope that some of our colleagues will be willing to lend us their ID’d erigonines long enough to have their pictures taken.

37. Wishlist... Floricoumus rostratus Idionella formosa Origanates rostratus Paracornicularia bicapillata Pelecopsidis frontalis Sisicottus montigenus

38. http://picasaweb.google.com/nina.sandlin/LinEpig Nina Sandlin Spiders - Zoology The Field Museum 1400 South Lake Shore Drive Chicago, IL 60605-2496 USA nsandlin@fieldmusuem.org nsandlin@fieldmusuem.org

39. Thanks Petra Sierwald, Kevin Pitz, Elizabeth Simmons – Field Museum, Chicago Michael Draney – UW Green Bay Rod Crawford – Burke Museum, UW Seattle Robert Edwards – Woods Hole, Mass. Efrat Gavish – Mitrani Dept of Desert Ecology, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel