Static allometries do not reflect evolutionary allometry in exaggerated weaponry of male New Zealand sheetweb spiders (Cambridgea spp.).

Across the animal kingdom, exaggerated weaponry is frequently used by one sex to contest access for potential mates. Within species, if disproportionate investment in weaponry confers an advantage to larger individuals, this may result in positive static allometry. It is predicted that the same selective pressures may also lead to positive evolutionary allometry, where larger species bear disproportionately large weapons on average, compared with smaller species. Furthermore, in species with stronger sexual selection, the static allometries of those weapons are expected to steepen. All adult males across the New Zealand sheetweb spider genus Cambridgea bear exaggerated chelicerae, which are used to compete for control of females' webs. Here, we characterize the distribution of chelicera lengths within each sex of 12 Cambridgea species to show that chelicerae almost always exhibit positive static allometry in males while female chelicera lengths are consistently isometric. We use comparative phylogenetic methods to demonstrate that the slopes of static allometries steepen in males of larger species but that the ratio of average chelicera length to cephalothorax width is tightly conserved across taxa, leading to an isometric evolutionary allometry. While static allometries indeed steepen in larger species, possibly due to stronger sexual selection, this conservation of relative trait size suggests that chelicera length is subject to other stabilizing selective pressures. Changes to species body plans might be constrained, while still allowing for disproportionate investment in weapon traits in the upper range of intraspecific body sizes.

Under-represented and overlooked: Maori and Pasifika scientists in Aotearoa New Zealand's universities and crown-research institutes.

This article provides insights into the ethnicity of people employed in Aotearoa New Zealand's publicly-funded scientific workforce, with a particular focus on Maori and Pasifika scientists. We show that between 2008 and 2018, Maori and Pasifika scientists were severely under-represented in Aotearoa New Zealand's universities and crown-research institutes. Despite espousals by these institutions of valuing diversity, te Tiriti o Waitangi and Maori research, there have been very little changes in the overall percentage of Maori and Pasifika scientists employed for a period of at least 11 years. Notably, one university reported having not employed a single Maori or Pasifika academic in their science department from 2008 to 2018. We highlight the urgent need for institutions to improve how they collect and disseminate data that speaks to the diversity of their employees. We present data that illustrate that universities and crown-research institutes are failing to build a sustainable Maori and Pasifika scientific workforce and that these institutions need to begin to recruit, retain and promote Maori and Pasifika scientists.

The World Spider Trait database: a centralized global open repository for curated data on spider traits.

Spiders are a highly diversified group of arthropods and play an important role in terrestrial ecosystems as ubiquitous predators, which makes them a suitable group to test a variety of eco-evolutionary hypotheses. For this purpose, knowledge of a diverse range of species traits is required. Until now, data on spider traits have been scattered across thousands of publications produced for over two centuries and written in diverse languages. To facilitate access to such data, we developed an online database for archiving and accessing spider traits at a global scale. The database has been designed to accommodate a great variety of traits (e.g. ecological, behavioural and morphological) measured at individual, species or higher taxonomic levels. Records are accompanied by extensive metadata (e.g. location and method). The database is curated by an expert team, regularly updated and open to any user. A future goal of the growing database is to include all published and unpublished data on spider traits provided by experts worldwide and to facilitate broad cross-taxon assays in functional ecology and comparative biology. Database URL:https://spidertraits.sci.muni.cz/.