Assessing the impact of fire on spiders through a global comparative analysis.

In many regions fire regimes are changing due to anthropogenic factors. Understanding the responses of species to fire can help to develop predictive models and inform fire management decisions. Spiders are a diverse and ubiquitous group and can offer important insights into the impacts of fire on invertebrates and whether these depend on environmental factors, phylogenetic history or functional traits. We conducted phylogenetic comparative analyses of data from studies investigating the impacts of fire on spiders. We investigated whether fire affects spider abundance or presence and whether ecologically relevant traits or site-specific factors influence species' responses to fire. Although difficult to make broad generalizations about the impacts of fire due to variation in site- and fire-specific factors, we find evidence that short fire intervals may be a threat to some spiders, and that fire affects abundance and species compositions in forests relative to other vegetation types. Orb and sheet web weavers were also more likely to be absent after fire than ambush hunters, ground hunters and other hunters suggesting functional traits may affect responses. Finally, we show that analyses of published data can be used to detect broad-scale patterns and provide an alternative to traditional meta-analytical approaches.

Seven new species of Australian peacock spiders (Araneae: Salticidae: Euophryini: Maratus Karsch, 1878).

Seven new species of the Australian peacock spider genus Maratus Karsch, 1878 are described from Victoria, South Australia, and Western Australia: Maratus azureus sp. nov., Maratus constellatus sp. nov., Maratus inaquosus sp. nov., Maratus laurenae sp. nov., Maratus noggerup sp. nov., Maratus suae sp. nov., and Maratus volpei sp. nov.

Three new peacock spiders from Southwestern Australia (Araneae: Salticidae: Euophryini: Maratus Karsch, 1878).

Three new species of the peacock spider genus Maratus Karsch, 1878 are described from the vicinity of Lake Jasper and Mount Romance in the Southwestern Australia ecoregion: M. aquilus sp. nov., M. combustus sp. nov., M. felinus sp. nov.

Utilizing ticks as forensic indicators in a livestock investigation.

Although forensic parasitology remains in its infancy compared with more developed fields like forensic entomology, parasites can be useful forensic indicators. We present the case of an individual who disobeyed animal health legislation and crossed animal quarantine boundaries and two state lines with a cattle tick (Rhipicephalus australis) infested horse. Following recognition of the infestation by animal health officers, the individual asserted that the infestation had occurred either during transport or upon arrival at the site of discovery, and that they had not contravened quarantine legislation. Utilizing ticks as forensic indicators, knowledge of the life cycle and minimum age of ticks on the infested horse indicated that the individual's assertions were false, and that they had in fact transported the tick infested horse from a cattle tick endemic region across state lines and quarantine zones.