Symposia

Description

Standardizing arachnology collections data and digitizing that data for research should be a priority to facilitate future scientific endeavors in the field. In this symposium we share the practices we use in curating and digitizing arachnology collections.

Collections are the foundation of taxonomic and systematic research and, with continued advancement in molecular technology, are now regularly being used for phylogenetic, ecological and biodiversity studies. The purpose of this symposium is to provide the current practices, protocols, and data requirements that are utilized in arachnology collections worldwide to maximize the utility of these collections.

Description

Arachnids are excellent navigators: they return home, locate prey, find mates, escape competitors, and establish territories. The spatial scale of arachnid navigation varies widely - some species move only a few centimeters, others traverse tens of meters, and some travel several kilometers. Locomotory strategies are equally diverse, ranging from crawling, walking, and running to jumping and ballooning. While some arachnids are strictly day-active, others operate primarily under the dim light conditions of twilight and night. Given these diverse locomotory strategies and ecological contexts, how do arachnids know where they are and where to go? This symposium aims to bring together research on orientation behaviour and spatial cognition across arachnid taxa, as well as the sensory and physiological adaptations that support these behaviours. By linking mechanistic approaches with behaviour and ecologies, the session highlights arachnids as powerful models for understanding spatial orientation in animals.

Description

Studies about parasitoid wasps and flies are central to our understanding of food webs and life-history evolution. While insect-parasitoid relationships are well-documented, those attacking arachnids remain poorly studied despite their impact on community structure.

This symposium will synthesize current knowledge and outline key directions for future research, bringing together perspectives from:

Chemical Ecology Phylogeny Community Ecology Applied Entomology

Description

Asia, especially the Oriental and Indo-Pacific regions, harbours exceptional arachnid diversity, much of which remains poorly documented, taxonomically unresolved, and underrepresented in global biodiversity research. Advances in integrative taxonomy, molecular systematics, phylogenomics, biogeography, biodiversity informatics, and conservation assessment now provide new opportunities to understand this diversity in an evolutionary framework.

This symposium aims to bring together researchers working on Asian arachnids across taxonomic groups, with a focus on species discovery, systematics, phylogenetics, historical biogeography, museum collections, DNA barcoding, and conservation-relevant biodiversity documentation. By linking classical taxonomy with modern molecular and collections-based approaches, the session will highlight the importance of Asian arachnids for understanding evolution, endemism, and biodiversity conservation. The symposium is organised within ICA 2026 with support from The Systematics Association, U.K., to strengthen participation by students and early-career researchers working on arachnid systematics in Asia.

Objective: To provide a focused platform for advancing Asian arachnid systematics by integrating taxonomy, phylogeny, biogeography, collections-based research, and conservation, while promoting regional collaboration and early-career participation.

Species Discovery Molecular Phylogeny Historical Biogeography Biodiversity Conservation