Scorpion Systematics Research Group

Ian Engelbrecht is 28 years old and currently works as the Invertebrate Conservation Scientist in the provincial government Nature Conservation body in Gauteng Province, South Africa. He has an MSc in Conservation Biology from the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), Johannesburg, and is currently studying computer science intending to become more heavily involved in biodiversity and eco-informatics. Ian has had an avid interest in scorpions since the age of 8 years. He joined the Spider Club of Southern Africa at age 10 and was its Chairman for several years. During his undergraduate studies at Wits, Ian met Lorenzo Prendini, who nurtured and encouraged Ian's interests greatly at the time. Ian started undertaking field expeditions for the AMNH in 2005 with an expedition to the Northern Cape and southern Namibia. Since then he has undertaken several other trips which have given him the opportunity to see more of southern Africa than most residents see in their lifetime. This is an opportunity that he will always be grateful for. He plans to continue contributing to the research efforts of Dr Prendini and the AMNH for as long as he can.

David graduated with a B.Sc. in Biology from the University of Guelph; his undergraduate thesis was on the entrainment of the circadian rhythm of H. arizonensis, a project he continued investigation after graduation. David’s current interest is to explore the taxonomy of the striped Centruroides scorpions of Florida using morphology. In 2008, he travelled to Florida and the Keys to collect Centruroides samples for morphology and DNA isolation.

Siegfried Huber was born in Germany in 1954. He studied Biology and Sports at the University of Freiburg where he met Prof. Peter Weygoldt, the world authority on Amblypygi (whip spiders). He became fervently interested in whip spiders, scorpions and other minor arachnid orders. Since 2000, Siegfried has accompanied Prof. Weygoldt on several expeditions to Oman, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, and New Caledonia, and conducted several expeditions to other interesting places on his own. Over the years, Siegfried has generously donated specimens collected during his travels to the AMNH. Siegfried is a computer programmer by profession. Besides arachnids and travelling, Siegfried enjoys chess (plus chinese chess), piano, volleyball, table tennis, and ice cream.

A Scottsdale, Arizona, native, Kari McWest grew up in Texas where he developed an interest in tarantulas. He caught his first scorpions while hunting tarantulas in the Texas Hill Country at age 9 and has been hooked ever since. In his early teens, his family returned to Arizona where he met and "studied" under Dr. Herbert L. Stahnke and met Dr. Mont Cazier and a young Oscar Francke. One of his collections-dated 1979, at age 15-was "rediscovered" recently at the CAS. Back in Texas, he managed a tropical fish hatchery. Under the urging of Dr. David Sissom in 1991, Kari received a GED and attended Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches. Since then, the two have collected scorpions and other arachnids throughout northern Mexico, New Mexico, and West Texas, and as his student assisted with research in the Texas Big Bend. In 1994, Kari volunteered at the Southwestern Research Station. He received his Bachelor's Degree in 1995, then studied under Sissom at West Texas A&M University, Canyon, where he received his Master's Degree and a family, with Sissom as Best Man. Currently, Kari spends his time with his four children (who also collect scorpions), is the Senior Editor for the American Tarantula Society, pretends to be a Chemist for Tyson Foods, Inc., studies genealogy, cacti, and Pleistocene Climatology, and collects scorpions whenever and wherever he can. He can be reached via his scorpion website or at kari.mcwest@gmail.com

Zach Valois, an undergraduate student at Salt Lake Community College, UT, was born in Pocatello, Idaho. He has been interested in invertebrate biology since he was a child and spent the last six years working with arachnids in the field. Since 2007, Zach has assisted the NSF-REVSYS Vaejovidae project with fieldwork throughout Arizona, Nevada, and Utah. He has also assisted the UMNH with curating and cataloging the collection, in addition to volunteering for Dr. Brent E. Hendrixson, East Carolina University, with fieldwork throughout Arizona, California, and Nevada. Zach is a member of the American Arachnological Society and the American Tarantula society. Zach currently has specific interests in interspecific interactions and how they affect arachnid biogeography. He plans to continue his education working with arachnid ecology and systematics.

John Visser is a retired zoologist with a passion for reptiles and amphibians. Had it had not been for this fauna, his next interest would have been arachnids. The taxonomy, distribution, ecology, reproductive biology and internal anatomy of herps are of special interest to John. They have been a life-long interest that started at age three with his first visit to a medical doctor. The doctor was wrong about John’s lifespan (now 71) but right about his obsessive compulsive behavior of turning over stones. Some of the techniques of collecting reptiles are much the same as those for scorpions so John’s interests in such divergent taxa complement each other in the field. His association with the AMNH dates to the time of the distinguished herpetologist Charles Mitchell Bogert. He is equally gratified to be associated as a field assistant to Dr Lorenzo Prendini.

Rick West, one of the world’s authorities on tarantulas (Theraphosidae), has traveled to over 27 countries to document and study them in their environment. His knowledge of these giant hairy spiders is encyclopedic and includes their uses and myths by indigenous people throughout the world. Rick is author of many articles and scientific papers and owns the largest pictorial library of tarantula species in the world. For the past 25 years, Rick has acted as a freelance scientific consultant and film presenter for researchers, scientific institutions, international wildlife and conservation organizations, international wildlife enforcement agencies, natural history books and wildlife film companies. Rick is happily married with children and grandchildren and lives in a rural setting outside of Victoria, British Columbia. He continues to travel to foreign countries and search rainforests, deserts and deep cave systems for new tarantula species. Having been a Special Constable for 28 years, Rick now enjoys the less stressful career of being a biological technician for a local Integrated Pest Management Company. He has generously donated interesting arachnids, collected during his travels around the world, to the AMNH for many years.