Fernando Alvarez Ph.D. Candidate Systematics of tetragnathid spiders Department of Biological Sciences George Washington University 2023 G Street. NW Washington, D.C. 20052 Tel. Lab: (202) 994-0302 Tel. Secretary: (202) 994-6090 Fax: (202) 994-6100 E-Mail: fap@gwu.edu

Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), Facultad de Estudios Superiores Iztacala, major in Biology (1994-1997).

Instituto de Biología (IBUNAM), Bachelor's thesis (1996-1999).

The George Washington University, Department of Biological Sciences, Ph.D. student. Co-advisors: Dr. Gustavo Hormiga and Dr. Jonathan Coddington (September 2000 - Present).

Current project: Systematics and taxonomy of "metine" spiders (Tetragnathidae), this project is part of an NSF-PEET grant to Dr. Hormiga and Dr. Giribet.

Collaborator in the creation of the Colección Nacional de Arácnidos IBUNAM.

I am interested in the systematics, taxonomy and evolution of "metine" spiders, protocols for conducting biodiversity inventories in tropical ecosystems and species richness estimation.

My dissertation project focuses on the systematics and taxonomy of the genera traditionally included in the subfamily Metinae. This subfamily has been classified within Araneidae, Tetragnathidae, or with their own family rank. At the present, "metines" include 39 of the 56 described genera of extant tetragnathids. The results of previous phylogenetic analyses have recovered a monophyletic Tetragnathidae conformed by the monophyletic subfamilies Tetragnathinae and Nephilinae, plus a paraphyletic Metinae (Coddington 1990, Hormiga, Eberhard and Coddington 1995, Scharff and Coddington 1997 and Griswold et al. 1998). Of these authors, Hormiga et al. (1995) have studied the phylogenetic relationships within Tetragnathidae in detail. Their analysis included 14 tetragnathid genera plus eight orbicularian outgroups of various families (22 species in total) coded for 60 morphological and behavioral characters. These authors suggested an unstable three-lineage configuration for Metinae and mentioned that to elucidate their phylogenetic relationships a larger taxonomic sample plus the study of more character complexes would be necessary (Hormiga et al. 1995: 358, fig. 30). This dissertation project intends to elucidate the phylogenetic relationships of "metines" species by including as many of these taxa as possible in a cladistic analysis combining morphological characters and sequences of several nuclear and mitochondrial gene fragments. This project will also include the monograph of Metabus O. P. Cambridge 1889, and the description of other new Chilean tetragnathid genera.

Australia
A four week expedition to several national parks in Queensland to collect orbicularian spiders, with Gustavo Hormiga, Nikolaj Scharff, Mantjaz Kuntner and Sidsel Larsen. (2002)

Chile:
A four week expedition to several national parks in the central part of Chile, to collect orbicularian spiders, with Gustavo Hormiga, Jonathan Coddington, Jeremy Miller and Ingi Agnarsson. (2000-2001)

Costa Rica
Tropical Biology: An Ecological Approach. Course based in Costa Rica involving eight weeks of intensive training in tropical field work, ecology and natural history. Organization for Tropical Studies (OTS) 2002.

Dominican Republic
A four week expedition to several national parks in Dominican Republic to collect orbicularian spiders, with Gustavo Hormiga and Suresh Benjamin (2004)

México:
Participation in a two year protect in two tropical deciduous forests collecting araneoid spiders, the first year in Jalisco state and the second year in Oaxaca. A Four week expedition to a tropical deciduous forest in Campeche state. And another four week expedition with Wayne Maddison, Marshal Hedin Gita Bodner and Jose Luis Castelo collecting salticids spiders along the Pacific coast of Mexico (1997-1999).

Thailand
A four week expedition to several national parks in Thailand to collect orbicularian spiders, with Nikolaj Scharff, Gustavo Hormiga, Jonathan Coddington, Martin Ramirez, Jesper Schmidt and Dana de Roche. I also participated in a Spider Biodiversity Inventory carried out at Doi Inthanon during this expedition (2003).

Doctoral fellowship, funded by "PEET: Systematics and Monography of Araneoid Spiders [DEB 0328644]" to Gustavo Hormiga and Gonzalo Giribet (2004- present)

Doctoral scholarship from CONACYT (2000-2004).

American Museum of Natural History Collection Study Grants, 2003.

Marie Stopes Student Travel Award, XXIII Willi Hennig Society Meeting, Paris, France 2004.

Mortenson and Bunting Awards of the Columbian College of Arts and Sciences, George Washington University 2004.

Correspondent of the International Society of Arachnology in Mexico.

American Arachnological Society (AAS).

International Society of Arachnology (ISA).

The Willi Hennig Society.

Alvarez, F. Progress in Tetragnathid phylogeny with emphasis in the "Metinae Problem" (Tetragnathidae: Araneoidea). American Arachnological Society XX Meeting Denver 2003 (Oral presentation) Abstract.

F. Alvarez-Padilla & G. Hormiga. Systematics of the Neotropical spider genus Metabus (Araneoidea: Tetragnathidae) and its implications for the reconstruction of the phylogeny of tetragnathids. XVI International Congress of Arachnology, Ghent, Belgium, August 2004 (Oral presentation).

Fernando Alvarez-Padilla & Gustavo Hormiga. Progress in the phylogenetics of the spider family Tetragnathidae, with emphasis on the "Metinae Problem" (Araneoidea, Araneae). XXIII Willi Hennig Society Meeting, Paris, France, July 2004 (Oral presentation).

F. Alvarez-Padilla & G. Hormiga. Systematics of the Neotropical spider genus Metabus (Araneoidea: Tetragnathidae) and its implications for the reconstruction of tetragnathid phylogeny. PEET V Conference Illinois 2004 (Electronic Poster).

Fernando Alvarez-Padilla. 2007. Systematics of the spider genus Metabus O. P.-Cambridge, 1899 (Araneoidea: Tetragnathidae) with additions to the tetragnathid fauna of Chile and comments on the phylogeny of Tetragnathidae. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 151: 285-335.

Hormiga, G., F. Alvarez-Padilla and S.P. Benjamin. 2007. First records of extant Hispaniolan spiders of the families Mysmenidae, Symphytognathidae and Ochyroceratidae (Araneae), including a new species of Ochyrocera. American Museum Novitates 3577: 1-21.

Matjaž Kuntner and Fernando Alvarez-Padilla. 2006. Systematics of the Afro-Macronesian spider genus Sancus (Araneae, Tetragnathidae). Journal of Arachnology. 34(1):113-125. Download PDF