Summer spent barcoding spiders

Summer spent barcoding spiders

Caption: Argiope protensa. Photo by Bryce McQuillan.

Nigel Binks and Annie West weren’t big fans of arachnids before they spent 10 weeks on a University of Waikato Summer Research Scholarship project analysing spider DNA. Since then, Annie says she has gained a great appreciation for the eight-legged creatures.

“The most surprising thing was the colour range of the various species. A number of spiders looked completely different in terms of their colouring, but after DNA analysis, we found they all belonged to the same species. In comparison, several grey-coloured house spiders turned out to be four different species”.

Supervised by Associate Professor Ian Hogg from the Faculty of Science and Engineering, Nigel and Annie’s project was entitled Biodiversity and DNA Barcoding of New Zealand Spiders. It was their mission to catch and sample spiders to contribute new sequences to the Barcode of Life Datasystems (BOLD) database.

Nigel and Annie worked in conjunction with photographer Bryce McQuillan and undertook the bulk of the collecting and curating work in the North Island, with Canterbury Museum’s Dr Cor Vink collecting spiders in the South Island and providing his expertise on the identification of species.

The pair spent many evenings in Waikato and Bay of Plenty bush areas catching 1200-1300 spiders by hand, and obtaining tissue samples which were sent to the Biodiversity Institute of Ontario, Canada for DNA extraction and sequencing. While this type of DNA barcoding has been carried out in other countries, it is the first time it has been done in New Zealand.

“The DNA work is done in robotic labs,” says Nigel. “This provides a greater success rate of getting uncontaminated DNA samples.”

With only two species of native land mammal – both bats – and 131 species of land-based birds, New Zealand is often considered to be a species-poor land mass. However, the estimated 2000 species of spiders proves to be the exception to the rule, especially compared with much larger land masses such as North America, which has around 3500 species.

This year Annie is starting a Master of Science in Molecular Ecology. Nigel is in the final stages of his Bachelor of Science (Tech) in Biology, and working at AgResearch as an entomology technician as part of the placement programme.

Nigel says he has enjoyed working in a whole new field.

“The lab work with the team has been great. We have found spiders that are bigger and older than previously thought. Some live up to 30 years. We found some that are comparable to tarantulas and are actually related to them. I’d love to keep working in this field as the summer research project has opened up a whole new world to me.”

Over the 2014/15 summer, 76 students participated in the Summer Research Scholarship programme, participating in full-time research from November until February, and receiving a $5000 scholarship. The programme is open to students enrolled at a New Zealand or Australian university, and gives promising final year undergraduate, honours year and first-year Masters’ degree students the chance to experience the challenges and rewards of research, working alongside senior University of Waikato academics. The Summer Research Programme began in 2006 at the University of Waikato. Scholarships are funded by the University, co-funded with University partners or totally externally funded.

ends

© Scoop Media