Fred R. Wanless (194015 December 2017) was a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

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

. Active in the field especially in the 1970s and 1980s, he described several dozen

taxa In biology, a taxon (back-formation from ''taxonomy''; : taxa) is a group of one or more populations of an organism or organisms seen by taxonomists to form a unit. Although neither is required, a taxon is usually known by a particular name and ...

, in particular among the

spiders Spiders (order Araneae) are air-breathing arthropods that have eight limbs, chelicerae with fangs generally able to inject venom, and spinnerets that extrude silk. They are the largest order of arachnids and rank seventh in total species di ...

of the

Salticidae Jumping spiders are a group of spiders that constitute the family (biology), family Salticidae. , this family contained over 600 species description, described genus, genera and over 6,000 described species, making it the largest family of spide ...

family. Wanless played a significant role in the

British Arachnological Society The British Arachnological Society (BAS) is the UK’s first body devoted exclusively to the study of arachnids. The primary objectives of the Society are to encourage interest in arachnology in people of all ages and to generate, promote and dis ...

being its member in 1969–1973, 1974–1976 and 1986–1989, and Meetings Secretary in 1973–1978. From 1973 to 1988 he described 137 new species and 13 new genera.

Career

He worked at the

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

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, dealing with the arachnid collections and at the

Australian Museum The Australian Museum, originally known as the Colonial Museum or Sydney Museum. is a heritage-listed museum at 1 William Street, Sydney, William Street, Sydney central business district, Sydney CBD, New South Wales. It is the oldest natural ...

Brisbane Brisbane ( ; ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and largest city of the States and territories of Australia, state of Queensland and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia, with a ...

. At the Museum Wanless developed interest in African jumping spiders while editing Doug Clark's notes and later working on their collaborative paper. During his work at the Museum he published a number of academic papers and supervised the studies of post-graduate students. Wanless played a significant role in the

being its member in 1969–1973, 1974–1976 and 1986–1989, and Meetings Secretary in 1973–1978. From 1973 to 1988 Wanless described 137 new species and 13 new genera. Among them only nine species (7%) have been later synonymized, while all his genera and the subfamily Spartaeinae remain valid. Wanless traveled extensively as part of his research working notably in Borneo and Botswana. In 1977, he joined the

Royal Geographical Society The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers), often shortened to RGS, is a learned society and professional body for geography based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1830 for the advancement of geographical scien ...

's expedition to

Gunung Mulu National Park The Gunung Mulu National Park, also known simply as the Mulu National Park is a national park in Miri Division, Sarawak, Malaysia. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site that encompasses caves and Karst topography, karst formations in a mountainous ...

in Sarawak where he collected and described local species. Wanless retired from the National History Museum in 2003, however he continued studying

grasses Poaceae ( ), also called Gramineae ( ), is a large and nearly ubiquitous family of monocotyledonous flowering plants commonly known as grasses. It includes the cereal grasses, bamboos, the grasses of natural grassland and species cultivated in ...

and

sedges The Cyperaceae () are a family of graminoid (grass-like), monocotyledonous flowering plants known as sedges. The family is large; botanists have described some 5,500 known species in about 90 generathe largest being the "true sedges" (genu ...

publishing a guide on them in 2013. Upon retirement, Wanless became increasingly involved in the work of the Wren Group and the Lakehouse Lake project being a member of its committee. Fred R. Wanless died on 15 December 2017.

Taxa described

* ''

Spartaeinae The Spartaeinae are a subfamily of the spider family Salticidae (jumping spiders). The subfamily was established by Fred R. Wanless in 1984 to include the groups Boetheae, Cocaleae, Lineae, Codeteae and Cyrbeae, which in turn were defined by Eu ...

'' Wanless, 1984, spider subfamily (

) * '' Jacksonoides'' Wanless, 1988, spider (

) * ''

Sadies ''Sadies'' is a genus of African jumping spiders that was first described by F. R. Wanless in 1984. Species it contains five species, found only in Africa: *'' Sadies castanea'' Ledoux, 2007 – Réunion *'' Sadies fulgida'' Wanless, 1984 ( t ...

'' Wanless, 1984, spider (

) * ''

Sondra Sondra is a feminine Greek given name meaning protector of man. By 2013, the name had reportedly become quite uncommon in the United States; it had reached a peak of usage in 1939. The name may refer to: People: * Sondra Erickson (born 1942), Am ...

'' Wanless, 1988, spider (

) * '' Tauala'' Wanless, 1988, spider (

)

Named in his honor

* ''

Wanlessia ''Wanlessia'' is a genus of Asian Salticidae, jumping spiders that was first described by D. P. Wijesinghe in 1992. it contains two species, both endemic to eastern Asia: ''Wanlessia denticulata, W. denticulata'' and ''Wanlessia sedgwicki, W. se ...

'' Wijesinghe, 1992, ragno (

) * '' Myrmarachne wanlessi'' Edmunds & Prószynski, 2003, ragno (

) * '' Paculla wanlessi'' Bourne, 1981, ragno (

Tetrablemmidae Tetrablemmidae, sometimes called armored spiders, is a family of tropical araneomorph spiders first described by Octavius Pickard-Cambridge in 1873. It contains 126 described species in 29 genera from southeast Asia, with a few that occur in Afri ...

) * '' Paracyrba wanlessi'' Zabka & Kovac, 1996, ragno (

) * '' Yaginumanis wanlessi'' Zhang & Li, 2005, ragno (

)

Studies and research on Salticidae

* Wanless F.R. 1973 - vedi: Cutler B., Wanless F.R. 1973. ''A review of the genus Mantisatta (Araneae: Salticidae)''. Bulletin of the British Arachnological Society, Londra, 2(9): 184-189, f 1-9. * Wanless F.R. 1975. ''Spiders of the family Salticidae from the upper slopes of Everest and Makalu''. Bull. Br. Arachnol. Soc., 3(5): 132-136. * Wanless F.R. 1978a. ''A revision of the spider genera Belippo and Myrmarachne (Araneae, Salticidae) in the Ethiopian region''. Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History) (Zoology), Londra, 33(1): 1-139, t 1-84, photos 1-6. * Wanless F.R. 1978b. ''A revision of the spider genus Bocus Simon (Araneae: Salticidae)''. Bull. Br. Mus. Nat. (Zool.) 33(4): 239-244. * Wanless F.R. 1978c. ''A revision of the spider genus Sobasina (Araneae, Salticidae)''. Bull. Br. Mus. Nat. (Zool.), London, 33(4): 245-257, t 1-8, phot 1. * Wanless F.R. 1978d. ''A revision of the spider genus Marengo (Araneae: Salticidae)''. Bull. Br. Mus. Nat. (Zool.), London, 33(4): 259-278, t 1-10, photos 1-3. * Wanless F.R. 1978e. ''On the identity of the spider Emertonius exasperans Peckham and Peckham (Araneae, Salticidae)''. Bull. Br. Mus. Nat. (Zool.), London, 33(4): 235-238, t 1-2. * Wanless F.R. 1978f. ''A revision of the spider genus Portia (Araneae, Salticidae)''. Bull. Br. Mus. Nat. (Zool.), London, 34(3): 83-124, t 1-13, phots 1-5. * Wanless F.R. 1979a. ''On the spider genus Cynapes (Araneae, Salticidae)''. Bull. Br. Mus. Nat. (Zool.), London, 37(1): 67-72, t 1-2. * Wanless F.R. 1979b. ''A revision of the spider genus Brettus (Araneae, Salticidae)''. Bull. Br. Mus. Nat. (Zool.), London, 35(2): 127-200, t 1-4. * Wanless F.R. 1980a. ''A revision of the spider genus Macopaeus (Araneae, Salticidae)''. Bull. Br. Mus. Nat. (Zool.), London, 38 (4): 219-223, t 1-3. * Wanless F.R. 1980b. ''A revision of the spider genus Orthrus (Araneae, Salticidae)''. Bull. Br. Mus. Nat. (Zool.), London, 38 (4): 225-232, t 1-4. * Wanless F.R. 1980c. ''A revision of the spider genus Onomastus (Araneae, Salticidae)''. Bull. Br. Mus. Nat. (Zool.), London, 39(3): 179-188, t 1-4. * Wanless F.R. 1980d. ''A revision of the spider genera Asemonea and Pandisus (Araneae: Salticidae)'' Bull. Br. Mus. Nat. (Zool.) London, 39(4): 213-257, t 1-29. * Wanless F.R. 1981a. ''A revision of the spider genus Hispo (Araneae, Salticidae)''. Bull. Br. Mus. Nat. (Zool.), London, 41(4): 179-198, t 19. * Wanless F.R. 1981b. ''A revision of the spider genus Phaeacius (Araneae, Salticidae)''. Bull. Br. Mus. Nat. (Zool.), London, 41(4): 199-219, t 1-9. * Wanless F.R. 1981c. ''A revision of the spider genus Cocalus (Araneae, Salticidae)''. Bull. Br. Mus. Nat. (Zool.), London, 41(5): 253-261, t 1-5. * Wanless F.R. 1982. ''A revision of the spider genus Cocalodes with a description of a new related genus (Araneae, Salticidae)''. Bull. Br. Mus. Nat. (Zool.), London, 42(4): 263-298, t 1-21. * Wanless F.R. 1983 984c ''Araneae-Salticidae. Contributions a l'etude de la faune terrestre des iles granitiques de l'archipel des Sechelles''. Annales Musee Royal Afrique Centrale, serie in 8. Tervuren, 241: 1-84, t 1-26. * Wanless F.R. 1984a. ''A review of the spider subfamily Spartaeinae nom. n. (Araneae: Salticidae) with description of six new genera''. Bull. Br. Mus. Nat. (Zool.), London, 46(2): 135-198, t 1-29. * Wanless F.R. 1984b. ''A revision of the spider genus Cyrba (Araneae:Salticidae) with the description of a new presumptive pheromon dispersing organ''. Bull. Br. Mus. Nat. (Zool.), London, 47(7): 445-481, t 1-22 * Wanless F.R. 1985. ''A revision of the spider genera Holcolaetis and Sonoita (Araneae: Salticidae)''. Bull. Br. Mus. Nat. (Zool.), London, 48(4): 249-278, t 1-19. * Wanless F.R. 1986. ''A revision of the spider genus Phyaces (Araneae: Salticidae)''. Bull. Br. Mus. Nat. (Zool.) 50: 103-108. * Wanless F.R. 1987. ''Notes on spiders of the family Salticidae. 1. The genera Spartaeus, Mintonia and Taraxella''. Bull. Br. Mus. Nat. (Zool.), London, 52(3): 107-137, t 1-20. * Wanless F.R. 1988. ''A revision of the spider group Astieae (Araneae: Salticidae) in the Australasian Region''. New Zealand journal of zoology, 15: 81-172, t 1-44. * Wanless F.R., Clark D. J. 1975. ''On a collection of spiders of the family Salticidae from the Ivory Coast''. Revue Zool. afr. 89(2): 273-296. * Wanless F.R., Lubin Y.D. 1986. ''Diolenius minotaurus sp. nov., a remarkable horned jumping spider from Papua New Guinea (Araneae: Salticidae)''. J. Nat. Hist. 20: 1211-1220, t 1-6.List of Fred Wanless's Jumping Studies
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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wanless, Fred British arachnologists 1940 births 2017 deaths British expatriates in Australia 20th-century British zoologists