Rowan McGinley
Recent news
Megaloastia mainae Natural History paper is now out
May 2016
Why does this jumping spider have such long legs? Find out this and more about the biology of Megaloasita mainae in the latest issue of the New Zealand Journal of Zoology. It is part of a festschrift in honour of Robert R Jackson, so make sure you check out some of the other salticid papers as well.
Arachno-art
September 2014
I'm helping out Maria Fernanda Cardoso with her latest project, which showcases the amazing multi-modal displays of Maratus jumping spiders. They are much harder to find than the Servaea incana that I'm used to, but we ended up with seven local species, each with their own colourful patterns and unique choreography.
Spiders in the media
October 2014
A very busy month working with the media on different projects.
First up, collecting the thread-legged assassin bug, Stenolemus bituberus, and their prey (spiders!) for a BBC documentary on deception in the animal kingdom. These bugs hunt web-building spiders by either sneaking up on them or by mimicking an insect trapped in the web. Once the spider is close enough the bug strikes, piercing the spider with its mouthparts. We got to see some cool shots of the strike in super slow motion. Anne Wignall investigated their predatory behaviour during her PhD at Macquarie University.
Next it was back to filming Maratus again. First with Maria Fernanda, before heading down to Melbourne to work with Peter Nearhos and Marli Lopez-Hope on two Natural History documentaries, both featuring Maratus volans. The spiders were such great performers that we had plenty of time to spare and managed to go sailing on Peter's yacht in Port Phillip Bay.
Paper accepted
November 2014
Coming soon to an issue of Animal Behaviour... "Assessment strategies and decision-making in male-male contests of Servaea incana jumping spiders"
Qué bonita
February 2015
Just back from a lovely trip to Costa Rica. Saw many spiders, other arachnids and even some vertebrates! So much to see in such a small place. I'll have to return someday. Thanks to Carlos Viquez at INBio and Bill Eberhard for helping me out while there. Now it's back to teaching at Macquarie University.
Splendid exhibition at the National Art School
March 2015
Maria Fernanda Cardoso is showcasing the work of the natural artist, Maratus splendens, at the Redlands Konica Minolta Art Prize. She teamed up with Geoff Thompson and his microscope at the Queensland museum to produce this amazing image. You can examine each scale in full colour at the National Art School Gallery in Darlinghurst until the 23rd of May 2015.
Behaviour2015
August 2015
Just back from warm and sunny Cairns, where I presented at Behaviour2015, the meeting of the International Ethology Conference. The whole conference was quite exciting and stimulating, especially the new research and ideas presented in the symposium on assessment and the evolution of weaponry in animal contests.
Off to Nebraska
January 2016
I've been offered an Endeavour postdoctoral research fellowship to go and work on sexual selection and communication in Scizocosa wolf spiders in North America. I'll be carrying out this research as part of Eileen Hebets' lab in the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Eight-Legged Encounters goes to Washington DC
April 2016
Eileen Hebets and her team of arachnologists and arachnids just got back from Washington DC where we took Eight-Legged Encounters to the USA Science & Engineering Festival. An enjoyable three days of outreach, educating children and their parents about the fascinating biology of arachnids.
Read more about it here.
New paper out
April 2016
Our new paper on opponent assessment in jumping spider contests is now available in Behavioral Ecology & Sociobiolgy. Our video playback experiments simultaneously suggest that Servaea incana jumping spiders can visually assess the size of their opponents and also that they may have limited opportunity to do so in live contests.
Read more about it here.
Thesis submitted!!!
July 2014
Finally finished with that thing!!... for now anyway. Now to play the waiting game...
The American Arachnology Society's First Meeting in Mexico
July 2017
I headed off to Queretaro, Mexico with Eileen, Noori Choi and Laura Segura to attend the 2017 American Arachnology Society Meeting. What a great place to hold a conference! The weather was perfect, the food was even better andthe diversity or arachnological research was outstanding. Besides the spiders, there was a whole session on amblypygids and we also got to hear talks about scorpions, harvestmen and palpigrades.
Eight-Legged Encounters goes to Bugfest at Toledo Zoo
August 2017
Members of the Hebets lab teamed up with Verner Bingman, Dan Wiegmann, Shannon Pelini and their labs from Bowling Green State University to bring Eight-Legged Encounters to Bugfest at Toledo Zoo in Ohio. We had a great day using arachnids to educate and engage young families in science.
Largest ever assemblage of arachnologists!
July 2016
What is the collective term for a group of arachnologists? Whatever it is, 2016's International Congress of Arachnology in Golden, Colorado was the biggest and the Hebets lab was part of it. It wasn't all about quantity either, there were some amazing talks and posters.
Regreso a Costa Rica: Ecology & Evolution of Arachnids
January 2017
I kicked off 2017 in Costa Rica, taking part in an Organization for Tropical Studies course: Ecology & Evolution of Arachnids. We got to learn from, and hang out, with some amazing arachnologists (Eileen Hebets, Ingi Agnarsson, Greta Binford, Richard Bradley, William Eberhard, Peter Michalik & Jay Stafstrom) as well as make friends with the up and coming arachnologists of tomorrow.
Oh, and we also got to see a huge diversity of arachnids (spiders, scorpions, amblypygids, ricinuelids, opilionids...) in their natural habitats. I even found Schizocosa tristani and recorded some of their courtship.
2017 Field season has begun... first (USA) stop: Florida
February 2017
After unexpectedly finding Schizocosa tristani in Costa Rica, the search for more Schizocosa species in North America continues. I'm off to Florida with Flinn O'hara (an undergraduate in the Hebets lab) and Jim Starrett (a postdoc in Jason Bond's lab at Auburn University). Time to get away from the cold weather again and see how many spiders we can find.
Jumping Spider Phenology
March 2017
Our latest paper is out in Ethology Ecology & Evolution. Servaea incana is protandrous, males mature early so that they are ready to mate when females are mature. However, we did not detect evidence of a trade-off between early maturation and body size; in fact, males were largest at the beginning of the season.
Canadian Road Trip: Conference & Spider Hunting
June 2017
What could be better than an animal behaviour conference hosted by a spider lab? Combining it with a field trip! This time I'm leading a team from the Hebets lab (Jay Stafstrom, Noori Choi & Bridget Bickner) first to represent the lab at the Animal Behavior Society meeting at the University of Toronto Scarborough and then to go in search of Schizocosa communis and any other wolf spiders that we can find.
Colorado 2017: The formation of UNISCO
August 2017
Just got back from another field trip. This time to Colorado in search of Schizocosa mimula with Noori Choi and Laura Segura, before Laura has to return to Costa Rica. Not sure yet whether we have S. mimula, but we saw a lot of arachnids - including solifugids! We also formed UNISCO (University of Nebraska's International Spider Collecting Organisation).
They mate how many times?!
October 2017
Our latest paper is now out in PloS ONE. About half of Servaea incana females never mate more than once in their lifetime, this strong mating inhibition takes effect pretty much immediately after the first time that they copulate.