DWU hosts arachnid conference, draws worldwide visitors - Daily Republic
More than 30 participants took a field trip to the Madison Waterfowl Production Area in Lake County, looking for new species of spiders and investigating the eight-legged creatures that call South Dakota home. The conference consisted of presentations and discussions of arachnids, but the field trip, according to conference organizer and DWU Associate Professor of Biology Brian Patrick, is the pinnacle of the trip. She will study biology in college at Hope College, but she's interested in the lycosidae family of spiders, which include the robust and agile hunters—the wolf spiders. Patrick said the Madison site was a good fit because it had a diverse number of landscapes—restored and native prairies, wet meadows and a restored gravel pit—that would provide a little bit of everything for the field trip participants. Members of the field trip group said they were particularly interested in a parcel of undisturbed native grasses to examine arachnids there. For those participating in the field trip, microscopes and other tools were nearby to allow for attendees to look at species under a closer examination. In the world of spiders, Patrick said the states of Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming have been largely undersampled because. Source: www.mitchellrepublic.com
