200 species in "LinEpig" Dwarf Spider gallery

With the recent loans of specimens from the University of Alaska Museum and the Royal BC Museum in Victoria, the LinEpig gallery now contains more 200 North American species of Dwarf Spiders. This online photo gallery -- which provides easy reference to the anatomical structures needed for spider identification -- is designed to help museums around the country identify the female Dwarf Spiders in their collections. These spiders (subfamily Erigoninae) are a notoriously difficult group due to their small size and the large number of species that have a similar appearance.

When the rest of recently received material is processed and posted, the gallery will comprise more than a third of described North American erigonine species.

Thanks to Brandi Fleshman and Derek S Sikes, University of Alaska Museum; Claudia Copley of the Royal BC Museum and Darren Copley of the Saanich Environmental Education Office; and Sarah Loboda and Chris Buddle of McGill University for helping us reach this milestone.

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