huttonia

huttonia

710 Observations 104 Species 47606 Identifications 18 Journal Posts 2 Lists 132 Followers

Matthew S. Lindsey

Joined: Nov 11, 2022 Last Active: Mar 22, 2023 iNaturalist

Profile photo: a sketch of me (wearing glasses, though a little bit hard to see) as a bumblebee jumper (Pystira ephippigera), my favorite jumping spider (salticid) species, reading a book on palpimanoids (maybe a future book I'll write?!, lol). The photos in the book show a species of Ikuma, based on the observations of Ruan Booysen (@razorspider) and Rudolph Steenkamp (@hrodulf). Despite what my photo shows, my favorite spider is actually the New Zealand endemic Hutton's palp-footed spider (Huttonia palpimanoides).

Hello! I am a homeschooling Christian from Dayton, Ohio, with an oversized obsession for spiders as well as any other organism, though, spiders are my area of expertise and have been my favorite organisms ever since I first heard of them. Some of my favorite non-spider organisms are centipedes (Chilopoda), harvestmen and other arachnids (Opiliones and other Arachnida), snakes (Serpentes), anteaters (Vermilingua), and rhinoceroses (Rhinocerotidae). I am bewildered by Creation, so aside from the identifications I make, I love to observe God's amazing creatures. especially spiders! Because I have so many spider stats and facts I really want to share with others, I am currently writing a new comprehensive overview of the 132 current spider families, as well as information on many previous and future families. Some of these facts include facts such as that jumping spiders can actually sleep! Others include those such as that bright lungless spiders probably have no related spider families and are probably not even araneomorphs! My book, non-profit, will be sold on blurb.com as A Field Guide to Spider Families of the World for about $32 (base price). The book includes characters for distinguishing families as well as characters found in every family. Listing all 4,300 spider genera, many spider genera will be illustrated will stunningly beautiful photographs from my kind contributors. My many thanks go out to them! The photographs, as well as the few illustrations, include faces, egg sacs, courtship behaviors, and more. Each family will be presented will a table of characters such as pronunciations, etymologies, taxonomic affinities, other names, body articles, lifestyles, and more. All genera in each family, as mentioned previously, will be listed, and many will be illustrated to give the reader an overall picture of the family. The taxonomic affinities are further provided in the information on each family as well as biology of many genera when known. If you don't have any prior experience in spider terminology (i.e., you aren't familiar with the many, many body parts), my book will have an easy-to-understand introduction to these terms, but you must memorize and recognize them otherwise my book may not be of any use to you. If you are ever reading anything I write and it just doesn't make much sense, feel free to message me via private message and I will happily explain!

If wished to be informed in the time of the publishing, one must follow me or, better yet, join the Spiders of Earth project. Both ways, I will post journals on the updates of my book.

Feel free to use my photos for anything! It would be very cool if you could send me a quick message first explaining why you are using it and/or where I can view it when it is finished! I'm also on Flickr under the same username, but there I won't post as many photos.

Current stats:

  • 22/45 Ohio spider families
  • 22/132 worldwide spider families
  • 69/700* Ohio spider species (on iNat)
  • 69/50,000* worldwide spider species (on iNat)
  • 1/2 Ohio spider infraorders
  • 1/3(4? see explanation below) worldwide spider infraorders

*About/over
Note: sometimes are the Caponiidae placed in their very own suborder/infraorder known as the Epulmonae; also note that the stats above do not include captive individuals

Current goals:

  • Photograph at least 35/50 Ohio spider families
  • Photograph at least 20 of these Ohio spider species (not in a particular order) sometime in 2023: Orchestina saltitans, Scytodes sp., Oecobius navus, Oxyopes salticus, Oxyopes scalaris, Loxosceles sp., Dysdera crocata, Ariadna bicolor, Heteropoda venatoria, Sphodros sp., Ummidia audouini, Antrodiaetus sp., Myrmekiaphila foliata, Arctosa littoralis, Hogna carolinensis, Geolycosa sp., Dolomedes sp., Pisaurina sp., Anahita punctulata, Cupiennius coccineus, Mimetus sp., Ero sp., Mastophora sp., Argiope sp., Micrathena sp., Gasteracantha cancriformis, Verrucosa arenata, Eidmannella pallida, Maymena ambita, Microdipoena guttata, Theridiosoma gemmosum, Latrodectus sp., Spintharus flavidus, Platnickina sp., Walckenaeria sp., Euryopis funebris, Hyptiotes cavatus, Uloborus glomosus, Octonobus sinensis, Tmarus sp., Paraphidippus aurantius, Neon nelli, Philodromus marxi, Hahnia sp., Agelenopsis naevia, Zodarion rubidum, Liocranoides tennesseensis, Agroeca sp., Wulfila sp.; already photographed the following species: Oxyopes salticus, Uloborus glomosus, Wulfila saltabundus, Euryopis funebris, Ero pensacolae, Theridion pennsylvanicum
  • Photograph all species of Oxyopidae, Pholcidae, and Uloboridae in Ohio
  • Photograph five new-to-iNat species
  • Recognize most spider genera and tribes by sight (specifically salticids)
  • Complete A Field Guide to Spider Families of the World

Future goals:

  • Become an arachnologist
  • Travel all around the world with the best macro photography setup ever
  • Photograph Huttonia palpimanoides
  • Photograph all Palpimanoidea families
  • Photograph every spider family (with white background)
  • Photograph every single spider genus ever (with white background)
  • Photograph every single species in the Palpimanoidea
  • Describe a second huttoniid (would be Huttonia platnicki) and be the first to photograph it
  • Discover a new, bizarre family of spider and be the first to photograph it
  • Record tons of spider stats and facts not yet known (e.g., top speed of a selenopid, total lifespan of an idiopid, what trogloraptorids actually use their claws for)
  • Write a complete guide to all the species in the Palpimanoidea (including those in Pararchaeidae and Holarchaeidae) called The Encyclopedia of Assassin Spiders
  • Write a complete guide to every spider genus (species?) called The World Spider Atlas

Completed goals:

  • Photographed a new-to-iNat species (Dipoena buccalis)

What I use for macro photography at the moment (unfortunately!)

  • iPod 6th generation (8 MP)
  • Macro lens

Projects I focus on most:

https://www.inaturalist.org/comments?utf8=%E2%9C%93&utf8=%E2%9C%93&mine=true&q=&commit=Search&q=&commit=Search
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/map?ident_user_id=huttonia#2/17.688/31.923
https://www.inaturalist.org/identifications?page=9&taxon_id=367189&user_id=huttonia
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?ident_user_id=huttonia&place_id=any&subview=map
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?place_id=31&subview=map&taxon_id=47118&unobserved_by_user_id=huttonia&verifiable=any&view=species

My absolute favorite observations:

Recommended websites:

  • World Spider Catalog (wsc.nmbe.ch) - The most complete taxonomic reference for spiders with all 132 families, 4,300 genera, and even all 50,000+ species! The recommended FREE membership allows access to thousands of scientific publications found nowhere else.
  • ARANEAE: Spiders of Europe (araneae.nmbe.ch) - Spiders of Europe is a recommended website with loads of information on all European spiders. Any logged in members are able to write pages on each species, and these pages are posted once the editors review them.
  • Bugguide (bugguide.net) - A North American-based (excluding Central America) website helpful for identification and information.
  • Asian Society of Arachnology (www.asianarachnology.com) - Created by renowned spider photographer Nicky Bay (@nickybay), the Asian Society of Arachnology (ASA) includes helpful information on the Asian arachnids, including before-published papers for logged-in members.
  • American Arachnological Society (www.americanarachnology.org) - An American-based website including dozens of journals posted on the arachnid fauna located in United States and Canada. Known as the AAS.
  • British Arachnological Society (www.britishspiders.org.uk) - A British-based website much similar to the AAS, but instead abbreviated BAS!

Recommended books (still under construction):

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