Barbara Anne York Main (27 January 1929 – 14 May 2019) Ann Jones (2019
"Barbara York Main, Australia's spider woman and Wheatbelt advocate, author and poet dies"
''Off Track'',

Australian Broadcasting Corporation The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is the national broadcaster of Australia. It is principally funded by direct grants from the Australian Government and is administered by a government-appointed board. The ABC is a publicly-own ...

. Published May 23, 2019. Accessed May 23, 2019. was an Australian

arachnologist Arachnology is the scientific study of arachnids, which comprise spiders and related invertebrates such as scorpions, pseudoscorpions, and harvestmen. Those who study spiders and other arachnids are arachnologists. More narrowly, the study of s ...

and adjunct professor at the

University of Western Australia The University of Western Australia (UWA) is a public research university in the Australian state of Western Australia. The university's main campus is in Perth, the state capital, with a secondary campus in Albany, Western Australia, Albany an ...

. The author of four books and over 90 research papers, Main is recognised for her prolific work in establishing

taxonomy Taxonomy is the practice and science of categorization or classification. A taxonomy (or taxonomical classification) is a scheme of classification, especially a hierarchical classification, in which things are organized into groups or types. ...

for

arachnid Arachnida () is a class of joint-legged invertebrate animals ( arthropods), in the subphylum Chelicerata. Arachnida includes, among others, spiders, scorpions, ticks, mites, pseudoscorpions, harvestmen, camel spiders, whip spiders and ...

s, personally describing 34

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of ...

and seven new

genera Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial ...

. The BBC and ABC produced a film about her work, ''Lady of the Spiders'', in 1981."Lady of the Spiders (1981)"
British Film Institute.Hodgkin, Ernest P. (1995)
"Barbara York Main"
''Records of the Western Australian Museum, Supplement''. 52 (pp. vii–xv), p. xi. With research interests that include the natural history and taxonomy of mygalomorph spiders, Main is noted for having studied the oldest known spider, a '' Gaius villosus''

trapdoor spider Trapdoor spider is a common name that is used to refer to various spiders from several different groups that create burrows with a silk-hinged trapdoor to help them ambush prey. Several families within the infraorder Mygalomorphae contain trapdo ...

she named " Number 16", from its birth in 1974 to its death in 2016.Burdick, Alan (5 May 2018)
"Elegy for the World’s Oldest Spider"
''The New Yorker''.Selk, Avi (1 May 2018)
"The extraordinary life and death of the world’s oldest known spider"
''The Washington Post''. Main is also recognised for her writing about the environment. Two of her books, ''Between Wodjil and Tor'' (1967) and ''Twice Trodden Ground'' (1971), have been described as "classic studies" of the cost to the environment of developing the wheatbelt in

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to ...

. Main remained active in the research community until she retired in 2017 at the age of 88.

Biography

Early life

Main was born in hospital in Kellerberrin, Western Australia, the fourth child of Gladys York (née Tobias) and Gerald Henry "Harry" York.Hughes-d'Aeth 2017, pp. 384–385. The children, four boys and a girl, grew up on a farm in the nearby Shire of Tammin, in two rooms in a mud-brick house.Hodgkin 1995, p. vii. Main's parents had married in 1921. Her mother was born in Coolgardie and had worked as one of two teachers in a school in Yorkrakine, and her father was a farmer who had emigrated in 1909 from

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other English counties, functions have ...

in England. Main's early life was spent in what Australians know as "Wodjil country", areas of the wheatbelt region of Western Australia known for its acidic sand, surrounded by '' Acacia victoriae'',

sheoak The Casuarinaceae are a family of dicotyledonous flowering plants placed in the order Fagales, consisting of four genera and 91 species of trees and shrubs native to eastern Africa, Australia, Southeast Asia, Malesia, Papuasia, and the Pa ...

plants and York gum trees. She told

ABC Radio National Radio National, known on-air as RN, is an Australia-wide public service broadcasting radio network run by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). From 1947 until 1985, the network was known as ABC Radio 2. History 1937: Predecessors an ...

: "I felt an immediate affinity with small things, not kangaroos or wedge-tailed eagles—I didn’t have that one-on-one relationship with a kangaroo that I could with caterpillars! So I'd keep them and feed them in boxes and watch them turn into butterflies." She wrote about the area and its destruction in her second book, ''Between Wodjil and Tor'' (1967).

Education

Main and her brothers attended a bush school, which Main left after two years to study at home through correspondence courses arranged by the Western Australian Education Department. She later attended Northam High School on a scholarship, boarding with a woman who looked after other students, then from 1947 the University of Western Australia (UWA) to study science, with a major in

zoology Zoology ()The pronunciation of zoology as is usually regarded as nonstandard, though it is not uncommon. is the branch of biology that studies the animal kingdom, including the structure, embryology, evolution, classification, habits, and ...

. In 1952 Main became the first woman to study at UWA for a PhD in zoology; she received her PhD in 1956 for a thesis entitled ''A comparative study of the evolution of the Araneae as illustrated by the biology of the Aganippini (Mygalomorphae: Ctenizidae)''.Hodgkin 1995, p. viii.

Marriage

In 1952 she married the Australian zoologist

Bert Main Albert Russell Main CBE FAA FANZAAS (6 March 1919 – 3 December 2009) was an Australian zoologist. Born in Perth, Western Australia, he studied zoology at The University of Western Australia. He served in the Australian Imperial Force and the R ...

; they met at UWA, received their PhDs in the same year, and remained married until his death in 2009. The couple had three children, Rebecca, Gilbert and Monica. Main was pregnant with her first child when she was awarded her PhD. She stayed at home to look after the children, while also working on various research projects, which included writing her first two books, ''Spiders of Australia'' (1962) and ''Between Wodjil and Tor'' (1967).Hodgkin 1995, p. ix.

Career

Before starting her PhD, Main worked as a junior lecturer at the

University of Otago , image_name = University of Otago Registry Building2.jpg , image_size = , caption = University clock tower , motto = la, Sapere aude , mottoeng = Dare to be wise , established = 1869; 152 years ago , type = Public research collegiate u ...

in Dunedin, New Zealand. After receiving her PhD in 1956, in 1958 the

International Federation of University Women Graduate Women International (GWI), originally named the International Federation of University Women (IFUW), is an international organisation for women university graduates. IFUW was founded in 1919 following the First World War by both British an ...

awarded her an Alice Hamilton Fellowship to spend six months studying spider collections in London at the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docume ...

Natural History Museum A natural history museum or museum of natural history is a scientific institution with natural history collections that include current and historical records of animals, plants, fungi, ecosystems, geology, paleontology, climatology, and more ...

and at the

Oxford University Museum of Natural History The Oxford University Museum of Natural History, sometimes known simply as the Oxford University Museum or OUMNH, is a museum displaying many of the University of Oxford's natural history specimens, located on Parks Road in Oxford, England. It ...

. She engaged in field work in California, Arizona and Texas, also in 1958, and visited spider collections in the American Museum of Natural History, the Smithsonian, and the

Museum of Comparative Zoology A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make thes ...

, while her husband was in the United States on a Carnegie Travelling Fellowship. Bert Main became Professor of Zoology at UWA and by 1960 the couple had set up home in

Claremont Claremont may refer to: Places Australia *Claremont, Ipswich, a heritage-listed house in Queensland * Claremont, Tasmania, a suburb of Hobart * Claremont, Western Australia, a suburb of Perth ** Claremont Football Club, West Australian Footba ...

. Main became an honorary lecturer in zoology at UWA in 1979, and later a senior honorary research fellow. In 1981 the BBC and ABC produced a documentary about her, ''Lady of the Spiders'', narrated by

David Attenborough Sir David Frederick Attenborough (; born 8 May 1926) is an English broadcaster, biologist, natural historian and author. He is best known for writing and presenting, in conjunction with the BBC Natural History Unit, the nine natural histor ...

and filmed by Jim Frazier and Densey Clyne, which discussed the 1,200 trapdoor spiders Main had been visiting and monitoring for the previous 12 years.

Recognition

Awards and honours

Main was awarded the

Medal of the Order of Australia The Order of Australia is an honour that recognises Australian citizens and other persons for outstanding achievement and service. It was established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, on the advice of the Australian Go ...

in January 2011 for "service to science and conservation as a researcher and educator in the field of arachnology, and to the community of Western Australia". The award was announced in the 2011 Australia Day Honours List."Main, Barbara York"
Australian Government, Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. She was also an honorary member of the International Society of Arachnology. In 2018 Main was awarded the Medal of the Royal Society of Western Australia, the first woman to win it since the award began in 1924."Medal of The Royal Society of Western Australian"
The Royal Society of Western Australian.

Species and genera named in her honour

SPECIES Spiders *''Mainosa mainae'' (McKay, 1979) *''Tasmanoonops mainae'' (Forster & Platnick, 1985) *''

Zephyrarchaea mainae ''Zephyrarchaea mainae'' is a species of spider, informally known as Main's assassin spider, Albany assassin spider, and the Western archaeid spider. The first of the assassin spider family (Araneae, Archaeidae) found in Western Australia, the sp ...

'' (Platnick, 1991) *''Tamopsis mainae'' (Baehr & Baehr, 1993) *''Nicodamus mainae'' (Harvey, 1995) *''Pediana mainae'' (Hirst, 1995) *''Storena mainae'' (Jocqué & Baehr, 1995) *''Megaloastia mainae'' (Zabka, 1995) *''Hersilia mainae'' (Baehr & Baehr, 1995) *''Aname mainae'' (Raven, 2000) *''Boolathana mainae'' (Platnick, 2002) *''

Arbanitis yorkmainae ''Arbanitis yorkmainae'' is a species of armoured trap-door spider in the family Idiopidae, and is endemic to New South Wales. It was first described by Wishart and Rowell in 2008 as ''Misgolas yorkmainae'', but was transferred to the genus, ...

'' (Wishart & Rowell, 2008) *'' Atrax yorkmainorum'' (Gray, 2010) *'' Missulena mainae'' (Miglio, Harms, Framenau & Harvey, 2014) Other arachnids *''Apozomus mainae'' (Harvey, 1992) (schizomid) *''Barbaraella mainae'' (Harvey, 1995) (pseudoscorpion) *''Hypoaspis barbarae'' (Strong, 1995) (mite) *''Hesperopilio mainae'' (Shear, 1996) (harvestman) *''Miobunus mainae'' (Hunt, 1995) (harvestman) Insects *''Adelotopus mainae'' (Baehr, 1997) (beetle) *''Ceratobaeus mainae'' (Austin, 1995) (wasp) Millipedes *''Atelomastix mainae'' (Edward & Harvey, 2010) GENERA *'' Bymainiella'' (Raven, 1978) (spider) *''Barbaraella'' (Harvey, 1995) (pseudoscorpion) *''Mainosa'' (Framenau, 2006) (spider)

Selected works

Books, essays

*(1962). ''Spiders of Australia''. Brisbane: Jacaranda Press.Hodgkin 1995, pp. xii–xv. *(1967). ''Between Wodjil and Tor''. Brisbane: Jacaranda Press. *(1971). ''Twice Trodden Ground''. Brisbane: Jacaranda Press. *(1972)
"Marginal Country"
''Westerly'', 17(2), June 1972, pp. 21–36. *(1976). ''Spiders''. Sydney: Collins (Australian Naturalist Library series). *(1979, Alec Choate and Barbara York Main (eds.). ''Summerland''. Perth: UWA Publishing.

Papers

Main had over 90 research papers published, including: *Main, B. Y. (1952). "Notes on the genus ''Idiosoma'', a supposedly rare Western Australian trapdoor spider". ''Western Australian Naturalist'' 3: 130–137. *Main, B. Y. (1954). Spiders and Opiliones. Part 6 of The Archipelago of the Recherche. Australian Geographical Society Reports 1: 37-53. *Main, B. Y. (1956). Observations on the burrow and natural history of the trapdoor spider Missulena (Ctenizidae). Western Australian Naturalist 5: 73-80. *Main, B. Y. (1956). Taxonomy and biology of the genus Isometroides Keyserling (Scorpionida). Australian Journal of Zoology 4: 158-164. *Main, B. Y. and Main, A. R (1956). Spider predator on a vertebrate. Western Australian Naturalist 5: 139. *Main, B. Y. (1957). Occurrence of the trapdoor spider Conothele malayana (Doleschall) in Australia (Mygalomorphae: Ctenizidae). Western Australian Naturalist 5: 209-216. *Main, B. Y. (1957). Adaptive radiation of trapdoor spiders. Australian Museum Magazine 12: 160-3. *Main, B. Y. (1957). Biology of Aganippine trapdoor spiders (Mygalomorphae: Ctenizidae). Australian Journal of Zoology 5: 402-473. *Butler, W. H. and Main, B. Y. (1959). Predation on vertebrates by mygalomorph spiders. Western Australian Naturalist 7: 52. *Main, Barbara York (1960). "The genus Cethegus thorell (Mygalomorphae: Macrothelinae)". ''Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia'', 43: 30–34. *Harvey, Mark S.; Main, Barbara York; Rix, Michael G.; and Cooper, Steven J. B. (2015). "Refugia within refugia: in situ speciation and conservation of threatened Bertmainius (Araneae: Migidae), a new genus of relictual trapdoor spiders endemic to the mesic zone of south-western Australia". ''Invertebrate systematics'', 29(6), 511–553. *Mason, Leanda Denise; Wardell-Johnson, Grant; and Main, Barbara York (2016)
"Quality not quantity: conserving species of low mobility and dispersal capacity in south-western Australian urban remnants"
''Pacific Conservation Biology'', 22(1), 37-47. *Mason, Leanda Denise; Wardell-Johnson, Grant; and Main, Barbara York. (2018)
"The longest-lived spider: mygalomorphs dig deep, and persevere"
''Pacific Conservation Biology'', 24(2), 203–206. *Harvey, Mark S.; Hillyer, Mia J.; Main, Barbara York, et al. (2018). "Phylogenetic relationships of the Australasian open-holed trapdoor spiders (Araneae: Mygalomorphae: Nemesiidae: Anaminae): multi-locus molecular analyses resolve the generic classification of a highly diverse fauna]. ''Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society''. zlx111.