Spider "hunter" Zhang Zhisheng: Going into the jungle to find new species, and now they have names

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Zhang Zhisheng is a researcher and doctoral supervisor at the School of Life Sciences of Southwest University. Together with his team, he published the first Chinese popular science book on spiders, "Field Identification Manual of Common Spiders" (first and second editions), the world's first large-scale spider atlas, "Atlas of Chinese Spider Ecology", and "Fauna Sinica: Theridiidae and Theridiidae".

Wulipo National Nature Reserve is lush and green, full of vitality. Recently, Zhang Zhisheng's research team at Southwest University published a special paper in the internationally renowned taxonomy journal "European Journal of Taxonomy", summarizing the spiders of the family Theridiidae from Wulipo, recording a total of 16 genera and 24 species of Theridiidae, including 2 new genera (Diplodactylus and Wuli) established with the species found in Wulipo as the model species and 8 new species with Wulipo as the model locality.

Spiders are everywhere. As the taxonomic researcher behind spiders, Zhang Zhisheng led his team to travel across mountains and rivers, all over the country and even Southeast Asia, looking for spiders in various natural environments.

Keyword: Focus

#It’s hard, but I enjoy it#

"I have loved small animals since I was a child, running around in the mountains to observe their state in nature." Zhang Zhisheng said. With his love for small animals and meeting his two mentors Song Daxiang and Zhu Mingsheng during his graduate school years, he has been connected with spiders ever since, and has focused on spider taxonomy for more than 20 years.

Taxonomy is a basic discipline in biology. Simply put, this discipline studies how many species of organisms there are and what relationships exist between them. Collecting samples from the wild, classifying and identifying them is one of the repetitive tasks in taxonomy.

"It's hard, but I enjoy it." Zhang Zhisheng said frankly that he regards scientific research as a profession, and this profession does not have the so-called eight-hour work system, let alone fixed weekends off. It is more about solving a certain scientific problem, whether it is at work, rest, or holidays. "The joy of doing scientific research comes from the satisfaction you get after solving this scientific problem."

Zhang Zhisheng is conducting field research (Photo provided by the interviewee)

"The biggest feature of doing basic research is that you cannot see any direct application of the results, and there are also many unknown factors in the research process, which often fails to achieve the expected results." Zhang Zhisheng said that to do this job, one must be able to endure loneliness and sit on the bench.

Keywords: survey

#Meet the strange "Spider Spirit"#

Deep in the mountains, accompanied by wind and rain, if a new species is discovered, it is an encounter by chance, as if it is a chance encounter between humans and the unknown. At this time, the arduous journey of wilderness hiking seems to have a touch of joy and fun.
"A long time ago, we encountered a disc-bellied spider during an investigation in Jinyun Mountain. It looked different, as if it had a seal on its 'butt'. Later, after research, we found that it was a new species and officially named it Nephila nigromaculata." Zhang Zhisheng listed all the "special" spiders he encountered during field investigations like the back of his hand.

Nearly Li's disc-bellied spider (photo provided by the interviewee)

"There are also ones that look incredible. At first glance, I thought it looked like a frog, but its size was smaller than a frog, and it only looked like a frog's head, without a body. My second reaction was that it was a snake, but it didn't have a body either. As a result, I touched it lightly with my hand and it fell off. When I looked closely, I found that it was a spider." Zhang Zhisheng said as he gestured the scene of his first sighting of the Hubei Curved-bellied Spider.

Hubei Curved-Bellied Spider (Photo provided by the interviewee)

Five new species of spiders, including the Guanshan Finger Spider, the Pianyan House Fork Spider, and the Yintiaoling Walled Spider, were discovered in the Yintiaoling Nature Reserve; two new species of egg-shaped spiders, the Jinyun Three-Nested Spider and the Nine-Toothed Three-Nested Spider, were discovered and named in the Jinyunshan Nature Reserve; and two new species of round-jawed spiders, the Simianshan Ota Spider and the Ringed Spiny-Footed Spider, were discovered in the Simianshan Nature Reserve.

In recent years, Zhang Zhisheng's team has made great achievements and has discovered more than 200 new species of spiders. It is worth mentioning that as early as 2017, the "Chinese Spider Ecology Atlas" compiled by the team was officially published. The book includes more than 2,300 photos of 1,139 spiders distributed in 71 families in China; the "Fauna Sinica: Arachnidae and Araneae" officially published in 2018 includes a total of 368 spiders from the Arachnidae and Araneae families in China, including 44 new species; in 2022, the article "Survey of Linyphiidae (Arachnida: Araneae) spiders from Yunnan, China" published in the journal Magetaxa described 110 species of Arachnidae spiders, including 76 new species.

Keywords: Application

#Answering the question "What is it?"#

For the general public who are not experts in spider research, they may have a question: what is the point of studying spider classification?

Zhang Zhisheng explained: "Spider taxonomy actually answers a fundamental question, that is, the question of 'what is it'." He believes that before carrying out spider applications, you must first clarify your research object, "What species is it?" "What are its habits?" "What are its characteristics?" and other questions before you can consider applications. In short, taxonomy is the foundation for other related research and applications.

Spiders have three classic applications: spider silk, spider venom, and biological control. "At present, we are working with multiple scientific research teams to provide spider samples, develop spider silk into biomaterials, and develop new drugs using spider venom as raw materials."

Spiders, as natural enemies of pests, play an important role in pest control and maintaining ecological balance in agricultural and forestry ecosystems. To this end, Zhang Zhisheng's team undertook a diversity survey of soil animals such as spiders in agricultural areas in eastern China. "The purpose of this project is to find out what animals are in the farmland ecosystem and what role spiders play in it. Our research found that spiders can prey on a variety of farmland pests, such as rice planthoppers, leaf rollers, leaf miners, etc., and the diversity of spiders will change accordingly with changes in the number of pests."

Keywords: rigorous

#Integrating science into daily life#

In addition to doing scientific research, as a doctoral supervisor, Zhang Zhisheng's most fundamental requirement for his students is "rigor".

"My mentor, Academician Song Daxiang, was very rigorous in his approach to scientific research. For example, when writing an article, he would scrutinize the details, read it word by word, and annotate the reasons for the revisions," said Zhang Zhisheng. "The rigorous spirit of the older generation of scientists has deeply influenced me and benefited me for life."

Zhang Zhisheng also has a set of strict standards for students to publish academic articles. First, he looks at the theoretical level. Logic confusion and nonsense are absolutely unacceptable. Second, he looks at the details. Missing punctuation, typos, improper references, etc. are all intolerable.

In teaching, Zhang Zhisheng integrates scientific knowledge into daily life to increase students' intuitive feelings and understanding of biological knowledge. When graduate students first come, the first thing Zhang Zhisheng does is to let them touch spiders themselves to change their habitual fear of spiders. "It is because of the lack of contact that they become afraid, so I will try my best to encourage students to participate in some practical activities."

In his opinion, students need to think more for themselves and practice cognition. Only if they adapt quickly will their university or graduate life be more fulfilling and their future development will be better.

All persistence comes from passion, the trick is to endure hardship, and success or failure lies in innovation. This year, the internationally renowned animal taxonomy journal Zootaxa published a special issue (Monograph) on the animal diversity of Chongqing Yintiaoling National Nature Reserve. Zhang Zhisheng is one of the organizers and guest editors of the special issue.

"The special issue includes 12 articles covering groups including spiders, insects, millipedes, scorpions and mites. It is the first special issue published in a foreign journal focusing on the biodiversity of a nature reserve in China," said Zhang Zhisheng with deep emotion. "The successful publication of the special issue shows that the biodiversity of Yintiaoling is very rich."

Next, Zhang Zhisheng will continue to organize scientific surveys in Yintiaoling and apply the successful experience of Yintiaoling scientific expeditions to other protected areas, striving to explore the characteristics of Chongqing's invertebrate resources and highlight the importance of Chongqing as a biodiversity hotspot.

Text: Yang Fan

Photography: Zhao Hanyu