IV- Authors and Contributors

Contributors

This Monograph summarizes results of research on Salticidae from over 1967 publications, and 58 collections, created by 10 generations of arachnologists over a period of 250 years. Working on taxonomy today, we are but the last link in a chain of our predecessors and a connection to, hopefully, the future generations of Salticidologists. There is a demand for synthetic compendia of basic taxonomic data, which also the present "Monograph ..." purports to achieve. The Authors and Donors of diagnostic drawings and photographs deserve special thanks, as in fact co-authors of this database. The full list of contributors can be found in this database using the "Search a publication" facility displayed in the form of the list of references. That facility also outputs counts and lists of species in each publication and even displays the diagnostic illustrations. Permissions for displaying these can also be seen there. The most prolific contributors are:
Galiano 695, Logunov 888, Maddison 187, Prószyński 1221, Wanless 294, Wesołowska 734, Żabka 458
(the numbers denote species illustrated in their papers used in the database up to 2009 version).

The database contains photographs (listed in the database as "publications" of their authors) made by the following photographers:
T. Adams, G. Anderson,R. Atkinson, R. K.S. Binu, S. Chakrabarti, G. B. Edwards, B. Foster, J. Gardzinska, T. Gasnier and his collaborators, C. Grismado, D.E. Hill, J. Holstein, F. & J. Hort, K. Isaksen, V. Jacinto, R. R. Jackson, R. Kaldari, B. Knoflach-Thaler, J. Koh, P. Koomen, D. Knowles, C. Lam, S. Li, J. Lissner, Manisha Shah, B. McQuillan, H. Metzner, A. Moraes, F. Murphy & J. Murphy, Marcus Ng, D. Logunov, E. Nieuwenhuys. A. P. Noordam, E. Olson, D. Petot, D. Reggianti, B.J. Richardson, Samson Davis, B. Schablon, Shazia Quasin, A. Senglet, S. Shuichi-Haupt, T. Szuts, H.K. Tang, A. Tanikawa, A. Tzirarkas, Vipin Baliga, R. Whyte, H.S. Yong. Additionally, paintings were received from B. Duhem and from Kuniko Arakawa. I wish to express warm gratitude to each of the above mentioned persons.

Polish School of the Taxonomy of Salticidae


Three generations of Polish Arachnologists have authored some 167 taxonomic publications on Salticidae between 1961-2006. The common characteristic of these publications is a methodical approach with precise diagnostic drawings of palpal organs and internal structures of epigynes, used for recognition of genera and as a basis for comparison. The general aim was a comparative study of Salticidae of the World, including studies of the fauna of poorly known areas, and of unrecognizable species. The studies began by studying the genital organs of type species of genera, then examining non-type species thereby facilitating revisions of genera. This provided a sound basis for moving on to the study of new collections of new species and new genera. Recent developments are the usage of color digital photographs and computer assisted automontage documentation. The methods developed by the Members of this School have some visible influence on modern taxonomy of Salticidae around the World. The present Monograph of the Salticidae of the World summarizes the efforts of the School to date. Members of the Polish School of the Taxonomy of Salticidae are listed below, in chronological order of their activities. They have contributed drawings to 2529 species (out of 4000) in this database, until December 2009. The numbers of their publications, until 2006, are given below in brackets; publications in co-authorship are shown as fractions: J.Prószyński (53,+13 x 1/2, + 5 x 1/3), E.M. Andreeva (2 x 1/3 [+ 2 earlier papers]),H. Punda (2), A. Bohdanowicz (3 + 2x 1/2), S. Hęciak (6 x 1/2 + 1/3), W. Wesołowska(33 + 18 x 1/2, + 1/3), M. Zabka (30 + 14 x 1/2), M. Prochniewicz  (3 + 1/2), J. Gardzinska (2 + 2 x 1/2), B. Patoleta  (1 + 2 x 1/2), P. Jastrzebski (5), M. Szeremeta (1/2), W. Borowiec (1/2)

Taczanowski Kulczyński Prószyński Wesołowska Żabka
There were XIXth century studies of Salticidae in Poland by W. Taczanowski (4 publications in 1867-1878) and W. Kulczynski(18 publications in years 1884-1911), but there was no continuity between these and recent research.

About the Author - Jerzy Prószyński

19551972199020102010

I began studies on spiders during 1954-57 as a student of the Warsaw University, Poland (simultaneously an employee of the Institute of Zoology of the Polish Academy of Sciences - full time from 1955 onwards), by preparing a diploma thesis on the fauna of 5 spider families of spider near Warsaw (Prószyński J. 1961). Poland has a long tradition of research on spiders, but there was a long gap between myself and my predecessors, and I had to start from the beginning, without any introductory help. One of the families I studied was Salticidae, and I concentrated on their taxonomy since 1960. I soon realized that I could gain an understanding of the group only by a broad comparative study of entire genera and so started with revisions of genera Sitticus (Prószyński 1968d, 1971a, 1973a, 1980d) and Yllenus (Prószyński 1968e, which was my PhD thesis, received in 1966). But what were the infrafamilial relationships of these genera? There was no reliable Introduction, or Key to the family for geographical areas broader than a few single countries (I quickly realized that Simon 1901-1903 was of little help) so I began to revise type species of the genera - in this cycle appeared papers: Prószyński, 1967, 1968a, 1968b, 1968c, 1971c.
All the above papers required loans of type specimens from various collections, usually being in more or less of a chaotic state, with curators having no information on the contents of their collections. So I started visiting various collections and made quick lists of their specimens for future loans; some collections had some sorts of catalogues, whereas in others I had to open jar after jar, remove all vials and make notes of the Salticidae specimens. In some collections I had even to search in various rooms and cabinets, for forgotten and lost collection jars (an amusing case: a Curator informed Dr. H.W. Levi that there was no requested type specimen of an Araneid from French Guiana in the collection under his care - I supplied Levi with intelligence in which room, in which cabinet, on which shelf and in which jar the specimen was kept - and so Levi received the requested specimen, my life long regret is that I could not see face of the Curator, when he received that information). The result was a "Catalogue of Salticidae (Aranei) specimens kept in major collections of the world" (Prószyński, 1971b), which was later incorporated into the present computer Monograph. Continuation of cataloging collections included lists I made in a number of USA collections, large and small, during the years 1985/86 and 1989/90.
A good opportunity for these travels were 4 years of my employment as lecturer of zoology in the University of Ghana, in Legon, Ghana, in years the1963-67, where I used my vacation home tickets, and all savings, for visiting collections - and cities they were kept in. That gave me also a great opportunity to meet personally a number of arachnologists, and curators of the collections. I had also opportunity to stay longer at some collections, and study their types on the spot. As a result, I made a considerable number of diagnostic drawings, and quick descriptions for future publications.
Return to Poland in 1967 resulted in the preparation of a "Catalogue of Spiders of Poland" (Prószyński, Starega 1971), several publications and also in several visits to more collections (Berlin, Leningrad). However, troubles also developed. In 1972 I became the head of a newly organized Department of Biology in a new Teachers Training College in a provincial town Siedlce in Poland, which I have built up almost from nothing, and for some time was also Vice-Dean. This excluded any scientific work for 4 years, and seriously limited my research possibilities for the future. As a result a paper on Salticidae of Japan, begun about 1968, appeared printed in 1987 (Bohdanowicz, Prószyński 1987). Trying not to loose unpublished drawing I added them (as figures 311-450) to a second doctoral degree (=dr hab.) thesis (Prószyński 1976), an invention I followed in "Atlases" of drawings (Prószyński 1984c, 1987). The paper of 1976 was a development of my preliminary idea of how to get a picture of the geographical distribution of Salticidae: in 1960 I had begun mapping distribution data from "Bibliographia ..." of Bonnet. I realized very soon that maps of distribution of names unknown to me was meaningless, so in the paper of 1976 I mapped only those species which I had studied and drawn myself, or to which existed reliable drawings; all together I selected only a half of the nominal species described from the Palaearctic Region. Continuation of that was the study of the distribution of Sitticus (1983a).

Lecturing and organizing the Department of Zoology in Siedlce took a lot of time, but offered some advantages as well. There was nobody controlling and limiting my activities, a freedom I treasured very much. I had little financial support, but if I organized it, nobody could prevent me from using it. So I participated in several International Congresses and Symposia of Arachnology, trying to connect them with some research on type specimens at the institutions abroad. I could select peoples to employ in teaching positions in my Department, and influence their development as scientist, and in this way trained several good arachnologists (Heciak, Wesołowska, Próchniewicz, Żabka - the two latter begun as my freshmen students). I also influenced the teaching level in my Department.

With some 500 genera of Salticidae, containing then over 4800 nominal species, the goal of understanding their overall pattern of relationship, simply by revising type species and genus after genus, appeared impossible to reach as an individual researcher. I was always keen to cooperate with younger colleagues and developed wide contacts, which included exchange of experience on identity of taxa and unpublished diagnostic drawings, which stimulated me to publish "Atlases..." with drawings of types, and since 1995 - development of an Internet "Monograph...".
The curiosity of contents of faunae of distant lands, and their relationships, led to development of another passion: to learn faunae of previously poorly understood geographical areas. I had begun that by study of collections from the former USSR (1979), of Mongolia (1882), of Japan (1987), of Saudi Arabia (1989, 1993). Two studies of this cycle are of special importance: study of the hitherto unknown fauna of Israel and adjacent countries (begun in 1987, published in 2003, earlier accessible in this computer monograph and in partial publications in 1998, 1999 and 2000), of India (1992a) and of Pacific Islands (in 1992b, and with Berry and Beatty in 1996, 1997, 1998). I induced also my collaborators to study the faunae of North Korea and China (Wesołowska 1882a, b) and Vietnam (Zabka 1985; the later Author produced a series of paper on Salticidae of SE Asia, Australia and Pacific Islands).

I used to present partial generalizations from research, mainly of distribution and faunal relationships on Salticidae, during consecutive Congresses and Symposia, these were, among others, papers of 1972, 1975, 1978b, 1980a, 1981b, 1983a, 1986a, 1988, 1996, 1980b (with Bohdanowicz), 1994 (with Lubin).

Searching for the best way to generalize knowledge on Salticidae I have finally invented and developed this computer monograph, which took me 16 years of work - since 2004 as a relational database now called now "Monograph of the Salticidae (Araneae) of the World".

My name is often associated with curatorship of the spider collection in my Institute in Warsaw, Poland: actually that is not the truth - during 30 years (between 1972 and 2003) I got direct access to the collection only part time during 6 months (in 1991-1992), for reasons beyond my control.

Looking back on 50 years of my full time employment as a scientist (from September 1955) I consider the top results of my life to be the following two kinds of achievements.
1. A synthetic works on taxonomy of Salticidae - the present Internet monograph "Monograph of Salticidae (Araneae) of the World". That Monograph become an official electronic publications (as defined by the 1999 edition of the International  Code of Zoological  Nomenclature [Chapter 3, Article 7, Par 8.6]) in 2003, and in more developed form in 2007, the actual version is dated July 2011 and is now available also as a printout. These contains summaries of results of all taxonomic studies on Salticidae since Clerck (1757).
2. Making a life success of the 1967 setback (the refusal of authorities of my country to extend my passport prevented me from accepting a Post-Doc scholarship at the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University), by undertaking organization (from point zero) of the Department of Biology (later Zoology) in a newly established provincial Teachers Training College, in Siedlce, Poland. I spent 20 years there, setting the character of the Department during my tenure and developing it as a center for research on Salticidae and students' education. Following my departure, the work is being continued by my collaborators, led by Professor Marek Żabka. As a research establishment, the level is testified by the names of researchers, who published over 150 scientific papers while I was employed there, and who recently organized the XVIIth International Congress of Arachnology, in July, 2010. Jerzy Prószyński, 26. IX. 2011.