Student says he's found spider species

Few entymologists study Alaska's vast terrain. Agricultural interests pay for most insect studies in the Lower 48 and by comparison, there's little farming in Alaska.

"It's such a frontier here," Bowser said. "It's pretty easy to make a contribution. In the Lower 48 you have to look harder to find something new."

Derek Sikes, entomology curator at the University of Alaska Museum of the North in Fairbanks, said that what is most exciting about Bowser's discovery is that it means curious people are poking around Alaska.

"We've yet to reach a point where we can say we know all the species — or even most of the species — in Alaska," he said. "It's nice to know that there are people in Alaska now, like Matt, who are interested enough and competent enough to recognize a new species."

The discovery has been going through a documentation process. The spider will not be recognized as an official new species until it undergoes peer review and publication in a journal, such as the Journal of Arachnology. Sikes said experts already are aware of the find and approval is likely.

Bowser has been trying to learn what the spiders do. He observes some in a terrarium and others during overnight stays in the mountains, using an unobtrusive red light to watch them during their active periods.

"They mostly sit there," Bowser said. "They may be sitting and waiting for something (tasty) to come by," he said, though he has watched one sit stonelike as a would-be meal pranced in front of it.

That happens in his home terrarium too, where they prefer dead flies.

Generally, harvestmen are opportunists that will kill many insects but are just as content scavenging on dead bugs, he said.

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