BOOK REVIEW

2005·2.3 MB·English

by  George Poinar

2005. The Journal of Arachnology 33:878-879
BOOK REVIEW
Review of Fossil Spiders in Amber and Copal by Joerg Wunderlich. Pub-
lished by the author (Verlag J. Wunderlich) in two volumes under the ref-
erence Beitrage zur Araneologie 3a (Volume 1 with 848 pages) and 3b
(Volume 2 with 1060 pages). ISBN 3-931473-10-4. Cost for each volume
is 48 Euro with orders to be placed with the author at Ober Hauselbergweg
24, Hirschberg, 69493, Leutershausen, Germany.
This voluminous work covers every con- ics in this portion include leg amputation and
ceivable aspect of fossil spiders in amber and regeneration, ballooning, bleeding, camou-
copal, from systematics and evolution to be- flage, webs, sperm and sperm webs, courtship
havior and ecology. Since our conceptions of behavior, egg sacs, enemies, fecal remains, ex-
fossils are based on our knowledge of extant uviae, ant mimicry, wound healing, molting,
forms, many examples ofmodern day taxa are cannibalism, parasitism, phoresis and preda-
used to interpret the behavior of fossil taxa tion by spiders on a wide range of other or-
(Boucot 1990). The present work differs from ganisms (including beetles, flies, bark lice,
the authors two earlier books on fossil spiders ants, planthoppers, termites, other spiders,
(Spinnenfauna gestern und heute [1986] and caddis flies, parasitic wasps, scale insects,
Die fossilen Spinnen im Dominikanischen spring tails, roaches, aphids, mites, a web
Bernstein [1988]) by being written in both En- spinner, weevils, bristle tails, insect larvae,
glish and German, thus making it accessible myriapods and pseudoscorpions).
to a wider audience. Of special interest are the author’s compar-
Reviewing a book of 1908 pages is no isons of extant and extinct spiders in Europe
small task and I apologize if some aspects, and the Dominican Republic based on present
which have special significance to certain day records and amber taxa. While amber
readers, are omitted. Since pagination contin- only entraps a small percentage of spiders in
ues sequentially in both volumes, I will refer any ecosystem, it is amazing how many spe-
to the two as a single work. To begin, this cies have been found. In Dominican amber,
definitely is a “one of a kind book” which there are some 152 spider species in compar-
has its own unique type of presentation. Most ison with 296 extant ones in the Dominican
ofthe chapters appear as separate publications Republic while Baltic amber has some 500
with a title, author, abstract, introduction, ref- species in comparison with some 1300 extant
erences and figures, so they can be cited sep- ones in Northern Europe. At the higher level,
arately. Some of the final chapters are au- there are more spider families in Baltic amber
thored by others. (51) than in Europe today (46).
This book presents a wealth of information Findings show that Theridiidae is the dom-
on all aspects of fossil spiders in amber and inant family in both Baltic and Dominican
copal, although most of the new taxa and ex- amber, thus reflecting the tropical-subtropical
amples presented are in Baltic and Dominican conditions at both of those sites in the mid-
amber and Madagascarcopal. While the major Tertiary. In contrast, the Linyphiidae is the
part of the book covers systematic placement most diverse family in central Europe today,
and taxonomic descriptions of fossil spiders, reflecting the temperate climate. Spiders in
a large and significant section deals with fossil Baltic amber are over twice as diverse as in
evidence of spider biology and behavior. Top- Dominican amber. This is probably due to the
878
BOOK REVIEW 879
different ecotypes in the Baltic amber forest, among dead leaves or moss and lichens on
including not only subtropicahtropical, but tree limbs and carry around their egg sacs.
also warm temperate forms (Larssoe 1978). Wunderlich shows an Arachaea sp. in Baltic
This diversity is also reflected in the plant amber holding a member of the family Ther-
genera reported from Baltic amber. The trop- idiidae as prey. The descendants of Archaea
icahsubtropical and many warm temperate are long gone from the Northern Hemisphere
forms undoubtedly disappeared during the but can be found in Madagascarcopal, a prod-
post-Eocene cooling events (Prothero 1994). uct of the legume tree, Hymenaea verrucosa.
In contrast, the climate in Hispaniola re= Today, most copal from Madagascar is less
maieed fairly constant until the Pliocene- than 100 years old, yet at the rate of habitat
Pleistocene cooling period, which eliminated destruction in that land, it is an important
the strictly tropical forms (Poinar & Pomar source of rare and endangered and probably
1999). This explains why approximately 88% even extinct species (Poinar et al 2001).
of the spider taxa in Baltic amber are now Volume one contains 696 color photos of
extinct, compared with only 33% in Domini- spiders covered in the text and numerous ex-
can amber. amples of spider behavior. Also included are
Since fossilized resin is thebestmediumfor color photos of the only known Baltic amber
preserving taxonomic characters, a wealth of solfugid and opilioacarid. The unique type of
new fossil taxa have been described from presentation and some spelling errors in this
specimens preserved in amber and copal. A work should not detract from its wealth ofin-
number of new spider species and genera are formation, which will be of interest not only
described in the present work, mostly from to arachnologists, but amber enthusiasts in
Baltic and Dominican amber, but a few also general, since the color plates are quite fas-
in Lebanese and Burmese amber. Eachchapter cinating and the keys can be used forthe iden-
in volume 2 deals with a specific spider fam- tification of amber and copal spiders.
ily, usually beginning with a key to the amber LITERATURE CITED
species and thee describing new taxa.
Of all the spiders covered in this work, one Boucot, A. 1990. Evolutionary Paleobiology ofBe-
group in particularis especially interesting be- havior and Coevolution. Elsevier, Amsterdam.
cause of its phylogeny, appearance and bio- Lar7s2s5on,pp.S.G. 1978. Baltic Amber—a Palaeobio-
geography. These spiders belong to the prim- logical Study. Entomonograph 1:1-192.
itive family Archaeidae, the “Dawn” or Poinar, Jr., G.O., A. Brown, S. Brown & R. Poinar.
“Long- necked spiders”. Wunderlich lists two 2001. Stuck in Time (Madagascar copal). Fauna
subfamilies, the Mecysmaucheeiieae, from 2:70-76.
Australia, New Zealand and South America Poinar, Jr., G.O. & R. Poinar. 1999. The Amberfor-
and the Archaeinae from South Africa, Mad- est. Princeton University Press, Princeton. 239
agascar and the Australian Region. Five gen- pp.
era in the subfamily Archaeinae occur in Bal- Prothero, D.R. 1994. The Eocene-Oligocene Tran-
tic and Bitterfeld amber, the most common sition. Columbia University Press, New York.
fossil being Archaea paradoxa Koch & Ber- 291 pp.
endt 1854 in Baltic amber. Members of the Wunderlich, J. 1986. Spinnenfauea gestern und
heute. Erich Bauer Verlag, Wiesbaden. 283 pp.
genus Archaea have an elongated prosoma
Wunderlich, J. 1988. Die fossilen Spinnen (Ara-
and long chelicerae, the inner edges of which neae) im Baltischen Bernstein. Beitr^e zur Ar-
are lined with peg teeth to grasp prey. All ex- aneologie 3:280 pp.
tant members of this subfamily prey on spi-
ders and the long chelicerae hold the prey far George Poinar, Jr,: Department of Zoolo-
enough away to avoid receiving injury. Dawn gy, Oregon State University, Corvallis,
spiders are quite small (usually less than 4 OR 97331 Email: poinarg@science.
mm
in length); do not make capture nets, live oregonstate.edu