Salticidae: Diagnostic Drawings Library
by Jerzy Proszynski 2005
Supplement: Biographies of Arachnologists
Jerzy Proszynski
50th anniversary of first employment as a researcher
I begun
studies on spiders in years 1954-57 as a student of the Warsaw University,
Poland, by preparing diploma thesis on fauna of 5 families of spider nearby
Warsaw (Proszynski J. 1961). Poland has long traditions of research on spiders,
but there was a long gap in these, and I had to start from beginning, without
any introductory help. One of families studied were Salticidae, and I concentrated
on them since 1960. I realized soon that I can gain understanding of the group
only by broad comparative study of whole genera and so started with revisions
of genera Sitticus (Proszynski
1968d, 1971a, 1973a, 1980d) and Yllenus
(Proszynski 1968e, which was my PhD thesis, received in 1966). But which position
occupy these genera within the family? There was no reliable Introduction,
or Key to the family for geographical areas broader than a few single countries(I
quickly realized that Simon 1901-1903 is of no help) so begun to revise type
species of the genera - in this cycle appeared papers: Proszynski, 1967, 1968a,
1968b, 1968c, 1971c.
All the above papers required loans of type specimens from various collections,
usually being in more or less chaotic state, with curators having no information
on contents of their collections. So I started visiting various collections
and make quick lists of their specimens for future loans; some collections
had some sorts of catalogues, in other I had to open jar after jar, remove
all vials and write down the Salticidae specimens. In some collections I had
even to search in various rooms and cabinets, for forgotten and lost collection
jars. The results was a "Catalogue of Salticidae (Aranei) specimens
kept in major collections of the world" (Proszynski, 1971b), which was later
included into the present computer Monograph. Continuation of cataloging collections
were list I made in a number of USA collections, large and small, in years
1985/86 and 1989/90.
A good opportunity for these travel were 4 years of my employment as lecturer
of zoology in the University of Ghana, in Legon, Ghana, in years 1963-67,
where I used my vacation home tickets, and all savings, for visiting collections
- and cities they were kept in. That gave me also a great opportunity to meet
personally a number of arachnologists, and curators of the collections. I
had also opportunity to stay longer at some collections, and study their types
on the spot. As a result, I made a considerable number of diagnostic drawings,
and quick descriptions for future publications.
Return to Poland in 1967 resulted in preparation of a "Catalogue of Spiders
of Poland" (Proszynski, Starega 1971), several publications and also in several
visits in more collections (Berlin, Leningrad). However, troubles also developed.
In 1972 I become a head of newly organized Department of Biology in a new
Teachers Training College in a provincional town Siedlce in Poland, which
I have built up almost from nothing, and for some time was also Vice-Dean.
This excluded any scientific work for 4 years, and seriously limited my research
possibilities for the future. As a result a paper on Salticidae of Japan,
begun about 1968, appeared printed in 1987 (Bohdanowicz, Proszynski 1987).
Trying not to loose unpublished drawing I added them (as figures 311-450)
to a second doctor degree (=dr hab.) thesis (Proszynski 1976), an invention
I followed in "Atlases" of drawings (Proszynski 1984c, 1987). The paper of
1976 was a development of my preliminary idea of how to get picture of geographical
distribution of Salticidae: in 1960 I begun mappig distribution data from
"Bibliographia ..." of Bonnet. I realized very soon that maps of distribution
of names unknown to me is meaningless, so in the paper of 1976 I mapped only
those species which I studied and drawn myself, or to which existed reliable
drawings; all together I selected only a half of nominal species described
from Palaearctic Region. Continuation of that was study of distribution of
Sitticus (1983a).
Lecturing and organizing Department of Zoology in Siedlce took a lot of time,
but offered some advantages as well. There was nobody controlling and limiting
my activities, a freedom I treasured very much. I had not much financial support,
but if I organized it, nobody could prevent me from using it. So I participated
in several International Congresses and Symposia of Arachnology, trying to
connect them with some research on type specimens at the institutions abroad.
I could select peoples to employ on teaching position in my Department, and
influence their development as scientist, and in this way trained several
good arachnologists (Heciak, Wesolowska, Prochniewicz, Zabka - the two latter
begun as my freshmen students). I influenced also teaching level in my Department.
With some 500 genera of Salticidae, containing over 4800 nominal species,
the goal of understanding their overall pattern of relationship, simply by
revising type species and genus after genus, appeared impossible to reach.
But I developed another passion: to learn and understand relationships of
faunae of heretofore poorly understood geographical areas. I begun that by
study of collections from former USSR (1979), of Mongolia (1882), of Japan
(1987), of Saudi Arabia (1989, 1993). Two studies of this cycle are of special
importance: study of hitherto unknown fauna of Israel and adjacent countries
(begun in 1987, published in 2003, earlier accessible in this computer monograph
and in partial publications in 1998, 1999 and 2000), of India (1992a) and
of Pacific Islands (in 1992b, and with Berry and Beatty in 1996, 1997, 1998).
I induced also my collaborators to study faunae of North Korea and China (Wesolowska
1882a, b) and Vietnam (Zabka 1985; the later Author produced next a series
of paper on Salticidae of SE Asia, Australia and prepares now papers on Salticidae
of New Zealand).
I used to present partial generalizations from research, mainly of distribution
and faunal relationships on Salticidae during consecutive Congresses and Symposia,
these were, among others, papers of 1972, 1975, 1978b, 1980a, 1981b, 1983a,
1986a, 1988, 1996, 1980b (with Bohdanowicz), 1994 (with Lubin).
Searching for best way to generalize knowledge on Salticidae I have finally
invented this computer monograph. I hope it will appear useful. In 2004 I
begun preparation of a relational database called "Global species database
of Salticidae (Araneae)".
See also list of my publications .
My name is often associated with curatorship of the spider collection in my Institute in Wasaw, Poland: actually that is not the truth - during 30 years (between 1972 and 2003) I got direct access to the collection only part time during 6 months (in 1991-1992), for the reasons beyond my control.
Summary
Looking back on 50 years of my full time employment as a scientist (from September 1955) I consider top results of my life the
following two kinds of achievements.
1. Two synthetic works on taxonomy of Salticidae: the present Internet monograph "Salticidae (Araneae) of the World" (still being
developed) and the new "Global species database of Salticidae (Araneae)" (in preparation but already available in the Internet).
These contains summary of all my scientific results, on the background of all studies on Salticidae since Clerck (1757), all over the
World.
2. Making a life success of the 1967 setback (prevention to come for received Post-Doc scholarship at Museum of Comparative
Zoology, Harvard University, by refusal to extend my passport by my country Authorities) by undertaking organization (from
point zero) of the Department of Biology (later Zoology) in a newly established provincional Teachers Training College, in
Sielce, Poland. I spent there 20 years, setting the character of the Deparment during my tenure and developing it as a center
for research on Salticidae and students' education. After my depature, the work is being continued by my collaborators, led by
Professor Marek Zabka. As a research establishment, the level is testified by the names of researchers, who published over
150 scientific papers while employed there.
Jerzy Proszynski, 5. IX. 2005.
Copyright © for the page by J. Proszynski, 2005.