The return of Darko: a spider’s tale

It is our pleasure to welcome again in our unit, Dr. Darko Cotoras, a research associate at the California Academy of Sciences, from September 4th to October 6th, 2019.

If you do not know about spiders or island biogeography principles and look for a passionate researcher to share with you about it, get ready if you meet Darko! If you happened to be in Okinawa, just come to lab 2 level C at OIST. Aside from being a Japanese karaoke enthusiast and enjoying the beautiful summer in Okinawa, Darko is with us to sequence and analyze some Wendilgarda spiders collected from his recent field trip in Costa Rica. He is aiming at better understanding the evolutionary history of the genus of spiders by performing a molecular phylogenetic reconstruction of this group.

We look forward to learning more about his results in his talk on the Friday 27th September 2019 at 14:00, entitled “Adaptive radiation or exceptional behavioural plasticity? Genetic consequences of niche partition in Wendilgarda galapagensis (Araneae, Theridiosomatidae) from Isla del Coco, Costa Rica”.

Also congratulations on his Humboldt Research Fellowship, which will lead him to the Senckenberg Museum in Germany in a few months. Here he will study spiders evolution in temperate rain forests of southern South America.