17th International Congress of Arachnology - BRAZIL 2007

1. Congress Manuscript Guidelines:

The editors of the Journal of Arachnology (JoA) have decided that all manuscripts submitted for the Brazil ISA Congress Proceedings (to be published in volume 36, issue #2), must be submitted to Paula Cushing, Managing Editor of the JoA no later than December 15, 2007. Submissions must be clearly designated by the authors as Congress submissions. Manuscripts submitted after the December 15th deadline will be considered for later issues of the Journal. We cannot guarantee that late submissions will be published in the Congress Proceedings or will even be considered for the Congress Proceedings. Submissions should be sent electronically to Paula.Cushing@dmns.org (alternate address PECushing@juno.com).

Congress manuscripts should be no more than 15 pages in length (double spaced) not including figures and tables. If manuscripts are longer than 15 pages, authors must first contact the Managing Editor. If authors wish to submit a monograph sized manuscript, they must first contact the Managing Editor prior to submission.

All authors must strictly adhere to all format and other guidelines explained in the Instructions to Authors. These instructions can be accessed at www.americanarachnology.org. Any congress manuscript that does not adhere to these Instructions to Authors will be returned to the author and will not be processed until the manuscript adheres to all JoA policies and formatting guidelines.

Authors for whom English is not their first language must have a native English speaker read, edit, and help revise the manuscript prior to submission. If the author does not know a native English speaker who can assist with this task, the author must contact Paula Cushing prior to submission and she will arrange for assistance with this task.

All congress manuscripts will be reviewed in the same manner and with the same requirements for scientific quality and content as are any submissions to the Journal of Arachnology.

2. Instructions for submission of abstracts:

There is a limit of 1 (one) oral presentation for each first author.

Abstract submission:

The deadline for Abstract submission is MAY 15TH. We will not accept abstracts after this date.
To submit your abstract please go to Abstract Submission Form and fill in the appropriate boxes. An abstract should be submitted regardless of the format of presentation (Poster/ Oral presentation/ Conference/ Symposium). Abstracts and presentations MUST be in English. We will not accept any other languages. There is a limit of one oral presentation per author but no limit for poster presentations.

Abstract guidelines

Title: Should be concise. Generic and specific names should be underlined, taxonomic categories in parenthesis
Authors: The first author should be cited by the complete name, followed by the abbreviated first and middle names. From the second author onwards, cite the abbreviated first and middle names followed by complete surname. If multiple authors separate names with commas (,) and use "&" between the two last ones. Use superscripted numbers to indicate author affiliation.
Subject and Type of presentation: Select from Box.
Addresses: Use superscripted numbers to indicate author’s affiliations.
Financial Support: Optional.
Abstract: Should be informative, containing: the study's specific objective, unless given by the title; brief statements of methods, if pertinent; a summary of the results; and the conclusions. Please use a single paragraph. Specific and generic names should be underlined. Avoid the use of names that are not in accordance with the International Zoological Code of Nomenclature. Do NOT use citations of references, figures and tables.

Example:

Relative importance of patch quality and size to the structure of orb weaving spiders in an area of Atlantic rainforest in São Paulo state, Brazil (Arachnida, Araneae)

Nogueira, A. A.1, R. Pinto da Rocha1, A. D. Brescovit2 & R. Pardini1

1Departamento de Zoologia, Instituto de Biociências, Universidade de São Paulo, Rua do Matão, T. 14, 321, Caixa Postal 11461, 05422-970, São Paulo, SP, Brazil; 2Laboratório de Artrópodes, Instituto Butantan, São Paulo, SP, Brazil.

Forest fragmentation is a process in which continuous areas of native Forest are replaced by other ecosystems leaving isolated Forest patches. Nowadays the replacement of forests by pastures or croplands is the main cause of fragmentation. Our goals were to survey the composition and estimate the richness of the orb weaving guild of spiders and to describe the relative importance of patch quality and size t the structure of this guild in an area of Atlantic Forest in Southeastern Brazil. Field work was carried out in 16 study sites in Caucaia region (Cotia/SP).Four sites were located at fragments of medium size (14-28 ha) and four at large fragments (52-175 ha).The remaining eight sites were located in the Morro Grande Reserve with 10.000 ha, but which is connected to other large tracts of forrest in its south border. Four sites of the reserve presented a relatively open under story and a high and dense canopy (mature forrest), and the other four, a second growth vegetation with a closed under story and a shorter and more opened canopy. Sampling was carried out during two expeditions, in December 2002 and March 2003, using manual active nocturnal search by four collectors. The sub-sampling unit was one hour of search along a 30m transect by each collector. The total number of subsamples was 384 (24/study site). Only adult individuals were identified to species level. We obtained 9535 immature spiders and 3148 adult spiders distributed in 121 species of seven families. The richest family was Araneidae with 76 species and 2225 adult individuals, followed by Tetragnathidae (26 spp., 674 ind.), Theridiosomatidae (9 spp., 167 ind.), Uloboridae (6 spp., 62 ind.), Anapidae (2 spp., 12 ind.) Mysmenidae (1 sp., 7 ind.) and Symphytognathidae (1 sp., 1 ind.).The most abundant species was Micrathena nigrichelis (320 ind.).The rare species (singletons and doubletons) represented 25.6% (31 spp.). Seven non-parametric richness estimators were used and the results varied from 130.9 (Bootstrap) to 155.9 (Jack 2) for the Caucaia region. The accumulation curves of observed and estimated number of species did not reach asymptote. The richness and abundance of spiders varied from 29 to 54 species per site, from 88 to 311 adults per site and from 386 to 964 immatures. This large variation in the number of species and individuals among sites, however, was not related to patch size, but the abundance of spiders showed a relationship with vegetation structure. Number of adults significantly decreased (R2 = 0.3879, P=0.01), whereas the number of immatures significantly increased (R2=0,2679, P=0.04) along a gradient from mature to second growth Forest (first axis from a Principal Component Analysis on vegetation structure among the 16 sites). Cluster analyses (Bray-Curtis measure and Sorensen's coefficient) indicated a distinct spider composition in the four mature Forest sites of the reserve witch were grouped apart from the second growth sites, both in the reserve and in the fragments. A similar pattern was also revealed in a Correspondence Analysis (54.9% of variation in the two first axis). Our results indicate that vegetation structure is more important for the abundance and composition of orb weaving spiders assemblages than the size of the Forest tract.

Financial Support: FAPESP 99/05446-8 and 99/05123-4