Plenary Talk Title
Darkest Africa? Shining light on the spider biodiversity of the world’s most understudied continent
Biography
Charles Haddad is an Associate Professor at the University of the Free State in Bloemfontein, South Africa, where he leads the Arachnid Systematics and Ecology laboratory. He has more than 25 years’ experience researching spider systematics in the Afrotropical Region, with emphasis on the Corinnidae, Trachelidae, Salticidae and other families.
As the Assistant Project Manager of the South African National Survey of Arachnida, he has been heavily involved in sampling and identifying spiders collected throughout the country and investigating their biodiversity, ecology and biology with various local and international collaborators.
His talk will report on the progress made in researching spiders on the continent in recent decades, identify the major knowledge and biogeographical gaps, and provide evidence of Africa’s exceptional biodiversity, particularly in global hotspots and centres of endemism.