2024 Annual Meeting Chetumal

24-27 June 2024

Abstracts

Epilogue on the 2024 Meeting:

By the numbers:  ~45 attendees with 26 talks and 11 poster presentations. Three keynote speakers. Attendees also learned about Mayan history and took part in a Mexican-style piñata game at the banquet.

Student Presentation Awards winners:

Oral Winner: Ryan Bacon for “Population genetics and reproductive variation over a latitudinal cline in sclerosomatid Opiliones.”

Oral runner-up: Ryan Jones for “The biogeography and diversity of the North American solifuge family Eremobatidae.”

Poster winner: Goran Shikak for “Comparing ethanol rehydration techniques: Effects on spider morphology and DNA integrity.”

Poster runner-up: Bryan Lara for “Life cycle of the Nearctic treetrunk sheetweaver (Linyphiidae: Drapetisca alteranda).”

Keynote lectures:

Dr. Edmundo González-Santillán on Origin and evolution of the scorpion fauna of North America.

Dr. Cara Shillington "Snapshots" of a tarantula life history (Aphonopelma hentzi): spiderlings and end of life (for males).

Dr. Claudia Isabel Navarro Rodríguez on Advances in the study of the genus Loxosceles (Araneae, Sicariidae) in Mexico.

Hosts:

Yann Henaut, Salima Machkour M’Rabet, and Raziel Lucio Palacio, El Colegio de la Frontera Sur, Chetumal, Mexico.

A huge thank you to the students who helped us prepare this meeting:

Lizbeth Esmeralda Lara-Sánchez, José Manuel García Enríquez, and Edmundo Jacob Huerta Hernández, El Colegio de la Frontera Sur, Chetumal; and Sarah Schrader, Eastern Michigan University.

Chetumal is located in the south of the state of Quintana Roo, Mexico, on the border with Belize. Chetumal is a quiet and safe place. It's a small town surrounded by mangrove swamps and tropical forests, home to numerous chelicerates in addition to Mayan remains, and lagoons such as Bacalar. It faces a gigantic bay that is a reserve for manatees and is located at the gateway to the Caribbean.