Since 2003, eight volunteers, supervised by Scientific
Assistant Jeremy Huff and former Scientific Assistant
Randy Mercurio, have assisted with sorting, rebottling,
labelling, reorganizing, and databasing specimens and
tissue samples in the Arachnid and Myriapod Collections
of the Division of Invertebrate Zoology at the AMNH:
Abigail Carlton; Howard Fiedler; Tiffany Gentry; Jeremy
Huff; Danielle Parsons; Fabienne Paumet; Tom Sullivan;
Peg Werns. Significant progress has been made. Some
orders (e.g. Amblypygi, Solifugae and Uropygi) have been
completely rebottled and others (e.g. Scorpiones) are
nearing completion. Volunteers have also assisted by
packing loans, maintaining the live arachnids and taking
photographs thereof. Tiffany Gentry and Howard Fiedler
sorted and filed the Arachnid and Myriapod Reprint
Collection and Prendini’s personal reprint
collection. Jeremy Huff undertook two fieldtrips to the
Dominican Republic (the second in collaboration with
Postdoctoral Fellow, Erich S. Volschenk), a trip to
Martinique and French Guiana, and a trip to Senegal and
Guinea-Bissau with Valerio Vignoli, during which he
collected large numbers of amblypygids, myriapods,
opilionids, schizomids, scorpions, spiders and uropygids
that have greatly augmented the AMNH collection of
specimens and tissue samples. Ofelia Delgado is
volunteering with DNA sequencing in the Molecular
Systematics Laboratory.
Suzanna Dodd (2008)
|
Suzanna Dodd was born in San Francisco, California,
and spent most of her childhood and adolescence as
a homeschooled student in Huntington, West
Virginia. In 2007 she completed her B.A. in liberal
arts at Sarah Lawrence College, where she pursued
her interests in Islamic mysticism and marine
biology . In 2002 she became fascinated with
tarantulas, and has maintained a personal
collection ever since. She began volunteering at
AMNH in April 2008 and is currently pursuing a
career in Customs and Border Protection. Suzanna is
working with the Scorpion Research Group rebottling
the Type collection, part of the main collection,
and labelling new acquisitions.
|
Ofelia Delgado (2005-)
|
Ofelia Delgado was born in Mexico City. She
completed her B.Sc. in Biology at the Facultad de
Ciencias, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
(UNAM) in 2000, based on a floristic survey of
tropical dry forest. After graduating, she assisted
in the curation of the Section of Odonata in the
Insects National Collection, Instituto de Biología,
UNAM for two years. She studied at that time the
Odonata of Jalisco. Her experience in the field
includes collections of arachnids, insects and
plants in Central and Southern Mexico. She is
presently volunteering in the Molecular Systematics
Laboratory at the AMNH sequencing vaejovid
scorpions for the NSF REVSYS
Vaejovidae project.
|
|
Ilsa Kaim (2004-)
 |
Ilsa has volunteered at the AMNH for over 20 years.
She has been working with the Scorpion Research
Group to database the reprint collection in
Endnote, and databased the Type collection.
|
Howard W. Fiedler (2004-)
|
Howard Fiedler grew up in the Bronx, and explored
the AMNH as a child, where he developed a
fascination with natural history. This interest
increased during his education at Stuyvesant High
School and The City College of New York, where he
earned a B.S. in Biology and Chemistry. Howard then
moved to New York University, graduating as an M.D.
Although he spent his professional life as an
Ophthalmologist in Milwaukee, WI, Howard maintained
a peripheral interest in natural history. After
relocating to New York, he applied for and was
accepted as a Volunteer in the Division of
Invertebrate Zoology, where he has assisted with
the organization of specimen and reprint
collections since. Howard collects insects
informally and is proud to be counted among the
Volunteers helping to maintain the high standards
of learning and public service at the AMNH.
|
|
Tom Sullivan (1996-)
 |
Tom Sullivan was born in Bethesda, Maryland, USA.
He completed an AA degree in Mental Health in 1985
and is currently working in the Psychiatry
Department of Beth Israel Medical Center on an
inpatient unit. Tom has been volunteering in
Invertebrate Zoology since 1997, where has assists
with the sorting and labelling of the Arachnid and
Myriapod Collections, the packing and unpacking of
loans, and the maintenance of the live arachnids
for display purposes. Tom assisted with the
resettlement of arachnids and myriapods from the
former Department of Entomology to the new facility
in the Natural Science Building on the sixth floor
of the Museum. Tom is Secretary of the New York
Entomological Society and has a keen interest in
theriidid and sicariid spiders.
|