Jeremy A. Miller, Ph.D.

Systematics, behavior, and biodiversity of spiders

E-mail: jeremy.miller@ncbnaturalis.nl
Phone: 071 568 76 52
Fax: 071 568 76 66
Room Number: C03.12

Research interests

My research is focused on the systematics, behavior, and biodiversity of spiders. Data from morphology, molecular sequences, and behavior all inform my research questions. My studies involve phylogenetics, descriptive taxonomy, evolution of mating behavior, online taxonomic tools, quantitative biodiversity, biogeography, and international field work.

Current Projects

The misty Gaoligongshan, western Yunnan, China
Biodiversity of the Gaoligongshan. Since 1998, the California Academy of Sciences has lead an international interdisciplinary biotic inventory in the Gaoligongshan (or Gaoligong mountains) of western Yunnan, China. The Gaoligongshan is located in the heart of one of the world's biodiversity "hotspots". "Hotspots" are areas of extreme biodiversity and endemism under severe threat of habitat destruction. But the hotspot designation itself, while an extremely successful concept for the conservation community, has been criticized for over-reliance on data from vascular plants and tetrapod vertebrates. The hotspot designation criteria were originally selected in part because these taxa are relatively well known and well sampled worldwide, but it is not clear that they are representative of the biota as a whole because sampling and knowledge about the most diverse groups on Earth tends to be incomplete. Our inventory emphasized vascular plants and tetrapods (hotspot taxa) as well as fish, non-vascular plants (bryophytes), and two arthropod groups. From these data, we will be able to determine whether hotspot taxa are representative of a broader spectrum of the biota for conservation assessment and provide a model for assessing biodiversity of both well known and poorly known groups simultaneously.

Spider diversity of Vietnam. In 2009, spiders were sampled from three localities: Vu Quang, Cuc Phong, and Cat ba. My collaborators and I established a one-hectare plot at each location and conducted a structured inventory. Specimens are now being sorted to morphospecies. Images of all species will be posted online. We will estimate spider species richness in each of the three forests and assess species overlap between the study sites. Studies of spider species richness from single locations have been conducted at several locations around the world, but the rate at which spider communities change across the landscape is not so well understood. Digital images of morphospecies posted online will help us to disseminate our findings quickly, facilitate collaboration, and promote rapid progress toward a detailed understanding of spider community structure in Vietnam and beyond. All of this will aid land use planners and other decision makers concerned with biodiversity, and serve as a resource for Vietnamese students and researchers.

Recent Publications

New micro orbweavers from the Gaoligongshan
Spiders of the Gaoligongshan and online taxonomy. I recently published a monograph describing the Gaoligong species of four closely related spider families: Theridiosomatidae, Mysmenidae, Anapidae, and Symphytognathidae (the symphytognathoid spiders). Over 1000 adult symphytognathoid specimens were collected during the 10 year inventory. These belong to 36 species, all new to science. In addition to the traditional journal publication, data are available through a variety of online sources. New species have been registered on ZooBank, images have been posted on Morphbank, species pages have been created for the Encyclopedia of Life, and a Google Earth layer facilitates interactive exploration of specimen collection data.

Phylogeny of Spiders. I have used molecular sequence data to investigate questions about the phylogenetic affinities of several groups of spiders. The Penestominae was first described from females only and placed in the family Eresidae. Discovery of the male decades later brought surprises, especially in the anatomy of the male palp which features (among other things) a retrolateral tibial apophysis (RTA). The presence of an RTA is synapomorphic for a large clade of spiders exclusive of Eresidae. A molecular data matrix based on four loci was constructed to test two alternative hypotheses: 1) penestomines are eresids and the RTA is convergent, or 2) penestomines belong within the RTA clade. A revision of Penestomus with cybertaxonomic enhancements complements this phylogenetic work.

Social spitting spiders sharing a meal in Madagascar
Social Spitting Spiders. On a recent expedition to Madagascar, I discovered social behavior in spitting spiders (family Scytodidae). These spiders were previously known to have some maternal care, but not to cooperate as adults. The evolution of maternal care precedes more advanced forms of sociality in several spider lineages, so this discovery is consistent with a larger evolutionary motif.

Synaphridae of Madagascar. I described three new species of the obscure spider family Synaphridae from Madagascar. This group of tiny spiders was previously known from the Mediterranean region and Central Asia.

Teaching and mentoring

I participate in a course on Biodiversity offered through Leiden University. This course involves many scientists specializing in a wide variety of taxonomic groups.

In 2009, I was an instructor for the Advanced Field Ecology and Conservation Course at Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Yunnan, China.

Appointments

Wetenschappelijk Onderzoeker for Arachnida
Department of Terrestrial Zoology
Nationaal Natuurhistorisch Museum Naturalis
Leiden, The Netherlands

Research Associate
Department of Entomology
California Academy of Sciences
San Francisco, USA

Postdoctoral fellowships

Postdoctoral Fellow, California Academy of Sciences, 2007. Advisor: Charles Griswold. Funded by "Biotic Survey of the Gaoligongshan, a Biodiversity Hotspot in Western Yunnan, China," National Science Foundation award BSI 0103795 (P.I.s N. Jablonski and P. Fritsch).

California Academy of Sciences, Schlinger Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship in Systematic Entomology, California Academy of Sciences, 2005-2007. Advisor: Charles Griswold. Systematics of Widow Spiders (Araneae, Theridiidae, Latrodectus): A Total Evidence Approach.

National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, 2004-2005. Advisors: Dr. Jonathan Coddington and Dr. Ted Schultz. Molecular Phylogeny and Taxonomy of Widow Spiders (Araneae, Theridiidae, Latrodectus).

National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, 2003-2004. Advisor: Dr. Jonathan Coddington. Funded by "Assembling the Tree of Life: Phylogeny of Spiders," National Science Foundation award DEB 0228699 (P.I.s W. Wheeler, L. Prendini, J. Coddington, G. Hormiga and P. Sierwald). This project will produce a data matrix including over 500 exemplar genera representing all 110 spider families plus outgroups scored for 1000 morphological characters and 50 loci.

Education

The George Washington University (GWU), Department of Biological Sciences, Washington, D.C., 1996-2003, Ph.D. Co-advisors: Dr. Gustavo Hormiga, Dr. Jonathan Coddington. Dissertation: Progress in the systematics of erigonine spiders (Araneae, Linyphiidae, Erigoninae).

Western Carolina University (WCU), Department of Biology in Cullowhee, North Carolina, 1994-1996, M.S. Advisor: Dr. Frederick A. Coyle. Thesis: Systematics of the erigonine spider genus Sisicottus (Araneae, Linyphiidae).

The Evergreen State College (TESC), Olympia, Washington, 1989-1994, B.A., B.S.

The Northwest School, Seattle, Washington, 1985-1989.

Editorial duties

Zootaxa. Subject editor for amaurobioid spiders (Araneae: Amaurobioidea).

ZooKeys. Subject editor for spiders (Araneae).

Contributions to Zoology. Associate editor.

Arachnida collection at naturalis

Loans and collection visits can be arranged through our collection department at collectie@naturalis.nl or myself at miller@naturalis.nl. Prospective visitors are advised to visit /collections/plan-your-visit. Our loan policy is available at /collections/loan-policy.

Publications

Wang, X.-P., C.E. Griswold & J.A. Miller. 2010. Revision of the genus Draconarius Ovtchinnikov 1999 (Agelenidae: Coelotinae) in Yunnan, China, with an analysis of the Coelotinae diversity in the Gaoligongshan Mountains. Zootaxa, 2593:1-127. Download

Miller, J.A., C.E. Griswold & C.R. Haddad. 2010. Taxonomic revision of the spider family Penestomidae (Araneae, Entelegynae). Zootaxa, 2534:1-36. Download
Supplementary file for viewing distribution records and online species pages interactively in Google Earth. Download

Penev, L., D. Agosti, T. Georgiev, T. Catapano, J. Miller, V. Blagoderov, D. Roberts, V.S. Smith, I. Brake, S. Ryrcroft, B. Scott, N.F. Johnson, R.A. Morris, G. Sautter, V. Chavan, T. Robertson, D. Remsen, P. Stoev, C. Parr, S. Knapp, W.J. Kress, F.C. Thompson, T. Erwin. 2010. Semantic tagging of and semantic enhancements to systematics papers: ZooKeys working examples. ZooKeys, 50:1-16. doi: 10.3897/zookeys.50.538. Download

Miller, J.A., A. Carmichael, M.J. Ramirez, J.C. Spagna, C.R. Haddad, M. Rezac, J. Johannesen, J. Kral, X.-P. Wang & C.E. Griswold. 2010. Phylogeny of entelegyne spiders: affinities of the family Penestomidae (NEW RANK), generic phylogeny of Eresidae, and asymmetric rates of change in spinning organ evolution (Araneae, Araneoidea, Entelegynae). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 55:786-804. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2010.02.021. Request pdf
Appendix C. Supplementary data: Figs. S1-S7, four alignments in Nexus format. Download

Miller, J.A., C.E. Griswold & C.M. Yin. 2009. The symphytognathoid spiders of the Gaoligongshan, Yunnan, China (Araneae, Araneoidea): Systematics and diversity of micro-orbweavers. ZooKeys 11: 9-195. doi: 10.3897/zookeys.11.160. Download
Electronic appendices: Primary biodiversity data
File format: Microsoft Excel (1997-2003). doi: 10.3897/zookeys.11.160-app.B.dt. Download
File format: KML (Keyhole Markup Language) version 2.1 for Google Earth. doi: 10.3897/zookeys.11.160-app.C.dt. Download

Penev, L., T. Erwin, J. Miller, V. Chavan, T. Moritz & C. Griswold. 2009. Publication and dissemination of datasets in taxonomy: ZooKeys working example. ZooKeys 11: 1-8. doi: 10.3897/zookeys.11.210. Download

Coddington, J.A., I. Agnarsson, J.A. Miller, M. Kuntner & G. Hormiga. 2009. Undersampling bias: the null hypothesis for singleton species in tropical arthropod surveys. Journal of Animal Ecology, 78:573-584. DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2656.2009.01525.x. Request pdf

Agnarsson, I. & J.A. Miller. 2008. Is ACCTRAN better than DELTRAN? Cladistics, 24:1-7. Request pdf

Penev, L., T. Erwin, F.C. Thompson, H.-D. Sues, M.S. Engel, D. Agosti, R. Pyle, M. Ivie, T. Assmann, T. Henry, J. Miller, N.B. Ananjeva, A. Casale, W. Lourenço, S. Golovatch, H.-P. Fagerholm, S. Taiti, M. Alonso-Zarazaga & E. van Nieukerken. 2008. ZooKeys, unlocking earth’s incredible biodiversity and building a sustainable bridge into the public domain: From “print-based” to “web-based” taxonomy, systematic, and natural history. ZooKeys Editorial Opening Paper. ZooKeys, 1:1-7. doi: 10.3897/zookeys.1.11. Download

Miller, J.A. 2007-a. Repeated evolution of male sacrifice behavior in spiders correlated with genital mutilation. Evolution, 61:1301-1315. Request pdf
Appendix S1. Data matrix (nexus format). Download

Miller, J.A. 2007-b. Review of erigonine spider genera in the Neotropics (Araneae: Linyphiidae, Erigoninae). Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 149 (Suppl. 1):1-263. Request pdf

Miller, J.A. 2007-c. Synaphridae of Madagascar (Araneae: Araneoidea): A new family record for the Afrotropical region. Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences, 58:21-48. Download

Ramírez, M.J., J.A. Coddington, W.P. Maddison, P.E. Midford, L. Prendini, J. Miller, C.E. Griswold, G. Hormiga, P. Sierwald, N. Scharff, S.P. Benjamin, & W.C. Wheeler. 2007. Linking of digital images to phylogenetic data matrices using a morphological ontology. Systematic Biology, 56:283-294. Request pdf

Miller, J.A. 2006. Web-sharing sociality and cooperative prey capture in a Malagasy spitting spider (Araneae: Scytodidae). Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences, 57:739-750. Download

Simmons, M.P., L. Zhang, C.T. Webb, A. Reeves & J.A. Miller. 2006. The relative performance of Bayesian and parsimony approaches when sampling characters evolving under homogeneous and heterogeneous sets of parameters. Cladistics, 22:171-185. Request pdf

Miller, J.A. 2005-a. Cave adaptation in the spider genus Anthrobia (Araneae, Linyphiidae, Erigoninae). Zoologica Scripta, 34:565-592. Request pdf

Miller, J.A. 2005-b. A redescription of Porrhomma cavernicola Keyserling (Araneae, Linyphiidae) with notes on Appalachian troglobites. Journal of Arachnology, 33:426-438. Download

Miller, J.A. & I. Agnarsson. 2005. A redescription of Chrysso nigriceps (Araneae, Theridiidae) with evidence for maternal care. Journal of Arachnology, 33:711-714. Download

Kostanjsek, R. & J.A. Miller. 2004. New records of sheet web spiders from Slovenia (Arachnida: Araneae: Linyphiidae). Natura Sloveniae, 6:19–24. Download

Miller, J.A. 2004-a. The genus Brattia beyond South America (Araneae, Linyphiidae). Journal of Arachnology, 32:526–538. Download

Miller, J.A. & G. Hormiga. 2004. Clade stability and the addition of data: A case study from erigonine spiders (Araneae: Linyphiidae, Erigoninae). Cladistics, 20:385-442. Request pdf

Miller, J.A. & D. Ubick. 2004. Spiders. Pages 105-128 in: Borror and DeLong's Introduction to the Study of Insects. Seventh Edition. C.A. Triplehorn & N.F. Johnson.

Miller, J.A. 2003. Assessing progress in systematics with continuous jackknife function analysis. Systematic Biology, 52:55-65. Request pdf

Toti, D.S., F.A. Coyle & J.A. Miller. 2000. A structured inventory of Appalachian grass bald and heath bald spider assemblages and a test of species richness estimator performance. Journal of Arachnology, 28:329-345. Download

Miller, J.A. 1999. Revision and cladistic analysis of the erigonine spider genus Sisicottus (Araneae, Linyphiidae, Erigoninae). Journal of Arachnology, 27:553-603. Download

Zujko-Miller, J. 1999. On the phylogenetic relationships of Sisicottus hibernus (Araneae, Linyphiidae, Erigoninae). Journal of Arachnology, 27:44-52. Download

Miller, J.A. & F.A. Coyle. 1996. Cladistic analysis of the Atypoides plus Antrodiaetus lineage of mygalomorph spiders (Araneae, Antrodiaetidae). Journal of Arachnology, 24:201-213. Download

Online Resources and Software

Encyclopedia of Life (http://www.eol.org/), 47 species pages contributed.

Morphbank (http://www.morphbank.net/), 570 images contributed.

ZooBank (http://www.zoobank.org/), 47 nomenclatural acts registered.

Miller, J.A., C.E. Griswold & C.M. Yin. 2009. The symphytognathoid spiders of the Gaoligongshan, Yunnan, China (Araneae, Araneoidea): Systematics and diversity of micro-orbweavers. Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) dataset. Available online at http://data.gbif.org/datasets/resource/8378/.

Miller, J.A. 2004-b. Key to the Genera of Erigonine Spiders in the Neotropics (Araneae, Linyphiidae, Erigoninae). Available online at http://www.gwu.edu/~spiders/interactiveKeys.htm. National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution.

Hormiga, G, J.A. Miller & F. Alverez-Padilla. 2003. LinyGen: Linyphioid Genera of the World (Pimoidae and Linyphiidae), An Illustrated Catalog. Preview Version. Available online at http://www.gwu.edu/~linygen/.

Zujko-Miller, C. & J.A. Miller. 2002. PEST: Precision Estimated by Sampling Traits. Available online at http://www.gwu.edu/~spiders/pestDocs.htm.

Miller, J.A. & M. Tschapka. 2001. The Bat Flies of La Selva (Diptera: Nycteribiidae, Streblidae). Beta Version 0.96. Available online at: http://www.biologie.uni-ulm.de/bio3/Batfly/index.html.