著者

谷川 明男

出版者

日本動物分類学会

雑誌

タクサ : 日本動物分類学会誌 (ISSN:13422367)

巻号頁・発行日

no.20, pp.23-25, 2006-02-20

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About 130 years has passed since L. Koch (1878) published the first paper on Japanese spiders. Today there are still many undescribed species in Japan. Based on papers published in the journal of the Arachnological Society of Japan during the last five years, three professional and six amateur researchers are now actively studying the taxonomy of Japanese spiders. Most of their publications are descriptive studies, e.g. description of new species, revision of a genus or a family. Phylogenetic analyses using morphological or molecular data have been published for many countries, but not for Japan. It is becoming increasingly urgent to foster young spider taxonomists. The traditional approach in taxonomy seems to be arbitrary and therefore not attractive for young researchers. Japanese leading taxonomists should adopt modern methods such as phylogenetic analyses in order to attract young successors.