Citizen science is a concept without which scientific research cannot be understood today. It is a tool used by many researchers and with which, while obtaining important data for their projects, they contribute to the knowledge and environmental awareness of the population. And one of the projects based on citizen collaboration that is currently in process and open to receive comments from all possible collaborators is Argiopeople. It is a study on spiders that, as a collateral benefit, brings us closer to arthropods that are often despised and feared, a study that promotes a change from arachnophobia to arachnophilia.
5 species of spiders in Spain
The initial objective of the research is to know the distribution in Spain of five very particular species of spiders, very easy to find and also to identify, all of them creators of large webs that make them very visible in gardens and in nature. Of these five spiders, four -three tiger spiders of the genus Argiope and one cross spider or garden spider of the genus Araneus- are very common on the islands and all the data provided will be especially important to place the Pitiusas on the map of arthropods, taking into account the limited knowledge we have on the islands of virtually the entire group of arthropods.
‘Argiope trifasciata’ | CAT
In this way, José Manuel Vidal Cordero, from the Department of Ethology and Biodiversity Conservation of the Doñana Biological Station encouraged -in the program Nautilus of IB3 rádio- all residents of the islands to collaborate in this project that, for the moment, is managing to collect observations from very different and distant corners of Spain. According to the latest figures provided by the researchers, “more than 90 percent of the citations collected on the observation.org platform are new locations for the five species”. From the Pitiusas Islands observations have already been included from almost all municipalities and there are records, for example, in Cala Xarraca, ses Salines, Buscastell, Cap Llentrisca, La Mola and Migjorn. There is even a photograph showing the spider’s ootheca (the egg sac).
For the full article, please visit Diario de Ibiza website here.