Aims
Motivation
Intellectual Merit
Broader Impacts


AMNH
WTAMU
IBUNAM
CAS


Principal Investigators
Collaborators
Graduate Students
Undergraduate Students
High School Students
Technicians
Volunteers


Fieldwork
Original Schedule
Collecting,/Sorting/ Documenting
Preserving Morphology and DNA 
Processing and Storage
Museum Collections
Databasing and Mapping
Taxonomy
DNA Sequencing
Phylogenetic Analysis
Publications/Authorship


Research Goals/Products
Training Program
Project Management

Fieldwork

At least thirteen ca. 2-week field trips will be undertaken during the summer months (June-September) of the first three years of this project, allowing us to include the results in our final published and website products.  We are aiming to acquire samples of all described vaejovid species for DNA isolation and concentrate on surveying areas that will yield the most undescribed species (particularly mainland Mexico).  We are directing less attention to well-studied or biogeographically less diverse areas, although we are targeting suspected new species in such regions.         
     In order to avoid a bottleneck in the molecular aspect of the project, we have concentrated on obtaining as many described species as possible during the first two years and, in our original proposal, designed a collecting itinerary to maximize localities at which there is a strong probability of obtaining target species (see below).  For example, fieldwork in Baja California and California during year 1 allowed us to obtain the three monotypic genera, and acquire numerous endemic species in the other genera.  During these initial field trips, we have tended to survey poorly sampled areas opportunistically rather than intentionally, collecting additional samples (and records) of described species, and anything new.  We will concentrate on surveying poorly collected areas more thoroughly during years 2 and 3.  As our work has progressed, we have also found it necessary to modify our original routes and the order in which we survey the various regions, contingent on activities taking place in the course of other projects.  For example, we are able to collect vaejovids during fieldwork for the NSF ATOL Phylogeny of Spiders project and for a project on DNA Barcoding supported by the Richard Lounsbery Foundation.  These additional sources of funding will ultimately allow us to survey the vaejovid fauna of North America even more intensively than originally planned.  By the end of this project, we expect to have gathered, named and described >90% of vaejovid species.        
     We collect from type localities only if it is practical to do so. Most of the time, it is not, and there will be no benefit in doing so.  However, in the case of species complexes or species with a complicated taxonomic history, this may be important. In some cases, we also need to recollect some species already sequenced because the tissue samples have been used up or degraded and no longer yield high molecular weight DNA.  In such cases, samples must be collected from the same localities at which they had been collected before to ensure that they come from the same populations.  All material acquired during the course of this project is collected legally in the US and Mexico. Sissom and Savary arrange permits for collecting in US national and state parks and forests. Francke organizes collection and export permits for Mexico. For more information, see the following links: 

	Original Schedule (see Field Trip Log for completed trips)
	Collecting, Sorting and Documentation
	Preserving Morphology and DNA
	Processing and Storage