Spiders of Jambi: A guide to the EFForTS collection

NAUFAL URFI DHIYA‘ULHAQ. Naufal Urfi Dhiya’ulhaq is a spider enthusiast who dreams of documenting all the spider species in Indonesia. He is active on the citizen science platform iNaturalist, where he contributes to open-access biodiversity data by making and identifying biodiversity observations, mainly on spiders. Naufal finished his B.Sc. degree in 2021 at the Faculty of Biology, Universitas Gadjah Mada in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, for which he explored the spider diversity of Paliyan Wildlife Sanctuary for his thesis. Following his thesis completion, Naufal worked as a freelance biodiversity surveyor and research assistant for a couple of months. In August 2022, he joined the EFForTS project as a spider specialist in the subproject Z02, which is assigned to the monitoring of aboveground biodiversity along the land-use change gradient studied in EFForTS. Apart from contributing to the present field guide, Naufal is also involved in preparing field guides about the spiders of Paliyan Wildlife Sanctuary and the flora of Dieng Mountains.

DANIEL RAMOS. Dr. Daniel Eugenio Ramos Gutierrez is a general ecologist with a recent focus on arboreal spider community change along a land-use change gradient in Jambi Province, Sumatra, Indonesia. He received his B.Sc. in Biological Sciences from Gabriel René Moreno University, Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia, in 2008. After a few years of gathering practical experience in conservation and field ecology in public and private institutions in Bolivia, Daniel then joined the program Biodiversity in Tropical Areas and its Conservation, for which he was awarded his MSc at the International University Menendez Pelayo, Spain, in 2012. He then worked as a herpetologist, environmental research promoter and environmental technician in Bolivia and Peru until 2017. In 2017, Daniel joined the Animal Ecology Group of Prof. Scheu at the University of Göttingen, Germany. Here, he conducted research in the framework of the EFForTS project and obtained the title “Dr. rer. nat.” in 2022.

RIZKY NAZARRETA. Rizky Nazarreta is a research assistant for the EFForTS project, mainly in the subproject Z02: Monitoring of Aboveground Animal Biodiversity. Rizky earned her bachelor’s degree at the Department of Plant Protection, IPB University, Bogor, Indonesia, in 2012. She then conducted her master’s research at the same university but in the framework of the EFForTS project, where she studied the community-level response of arboreal ants (Formicidae) to the conversion of lowland rainforest to rubber and oil palm plantations. After she has received her MSi degree in 2017, Rizky stayed with the EFForTS project, in which she now organizes and manages the taxonomic sorting and measuring of arboreal arthropod collections for downstream analyses. She also organizes the writing and compilation of EFForTS field guides of various arthropod groups, and their publication with BRIN.

MAYANDA LIA. Mayanda Lia is a biologist interested in the ecology of plants and spiders. In 2012, she got a bachelor's degree in biology from the University of Padjadjaran and a master's degree in plant protection from IPB University in 2017. During her undergraduate studies, she served as a field and laboratory assistant for ecology, plant taxonomy, and vertebrate taxonomy. In 2013, she assisted master's students from the University of Tokyo with their study on the relationship between plants and arthropods in natural forest to rice field vegetation in Cijedil village, Cianjur. Mayanda then joined as an assistant to Dr. Daniel Ramos of EFForTS, participating in studying the diversity of canopy spiders along a land-use gradient in Jambi Province. Currently, Mayanda works as an entomologist in the quality control of pest control in the greater Jakarta urban area.

BONAULI PAKPAHAN.  Bonauli Pakpahan is an illustrator who lives and works in Jambi Province, Indonesia. His distinctive personal style concerns fine art, digital art, surrealism, organic forms in the natural world, and expresses the vibrant spirit. Naturally, he was drawn to painting by self-taught, and the interest was cultivated during his childhood. Throughout his life, he has always been fascinated by images and how the world is represented through the eyes of the painted. In March 2022, he joined the EFForTS project as a spider illustrator in the subproject Z02, which is assigned to the monitoring of aboveground biodiversity along the land-use change gradient studied in EFForTS.

DAMAYANTI BUCHORI. Prof. Damayanti Buchori is a lecturer at the Department of Plant Protection, Faculty of Agriculture, IPB University, Bogor, ­Indonesia, where she is also the Head of the Biological Control Laboratory. Damayanti is also the Head of the Center for Transdisciplinary and Sustainability Sciences (CTSS), IPB University. Her research interests lie in the interphase of conservation-agricultural issues with a special focus on insect diversity and land-use change, biological control, pollination ecology, and sustainability sciences. She is also active in work related to science-based policies. She began her bachelor’s education in the Department of Pest and Plant Diseases, IPB University, Indonesia, in 1984 and received her master’s degree in 1989 from the Entomology Department, University of Illinois. In 1993, she received her Ph.D. from the Biology Department, Indiana University, USA. She has held a Professor of Entomology and Plant Pests since 2014.

STEFAN SCHEU. Prof. Dr. Stefan Scheu is the Head of the Animal Ecology Group, JFB-Institute of Zoology and Anthropology, University of Göttingen, Germany. He is interested in the diversity, ecology, and evolution of soil animals, decomposer communities, rhizosphere ecology, and food web ecology. He earned his diploma in biology at the University of Göttingen, where he also completed his doctoral studies in 1989 on the soil-living, saprophagous macrofauna in temperate limestone ecosystems. Stefan then continued as a postdoc at the JFB-Institute of Zoology and Anthropology, University of Göttingen and the University of Calgary, Canada. In 1998 he was appointed as Professor of Zoology and Ecology at Darmstadt University of Technology, Germany. Since 2008, he holds the Chair in Animal Ecology at the University of Göttingen. While being the Speaker of the EFForTS project and principle investigator of the EFForTS projects B08 and Z02, he investigates the ecological consequences of rainforest transformation on arboreal and soil-living invertebrates.

JOCHEN DRESCHER. Dr. Jochen Drescher is a biologist at the Animal ­Ecology Group of Prof. Scheu at the University of Göttingen, Germany. ­Jochen spent his undergrad years at the Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische ­Hochschule RWTH Aachen and the Julius-Maximillian-Universität ­Würzburg (both in ­Germany). He received his diploma in biology from ­Würzburg University in 2006. He completed his dissertation at the same university in 2011, studying the ecology and population structure of the invasive yellow crazy ant Anoplolepis gracilipes in ­Malaysian Borneo. ­After an interim position at Bayreuth University, Germany, he joined the EFForTS project in 2012 as a postdoctoral researcher. Within EFForTS, ­Jochen studies the ecological impacts of rainforest transformation to rubber and oil palm on arboreal arthropods in Sumatra and has published several ­scientific papers and field guides on the main arthropod taxa, including ants, beetles, spiders, parasitoid wasps, spiders, and springtails.