This resource has four pages:

• About the Interactive Maps (this page)
• Interactive Spider Distributions of BC
• Interactive Harvestman Distributions of BC
• Interactive Snakeflies of North America
• Spider Collecting Tips
• Tips for Getting Great Spider Photos by Thomas Barbin

ABOUT THE INTERACTIVE DISTRIBUTION MAPS OF BC

These interactive maps are meant to help anyone interested narrow down the possibilities based on the region of British Columbia the invertebrate was found. If you are sure of the genus then you can click the species on and off to help you determine which are the most likely to occur in your area. The direct link to online resources may be of further use for the identifications.

The maps and links to Bugguide, INaturalist, Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), and the World Spider Catalog were developed by David Blades. This type of map can be adapted to other taxa, and it is our hope that this template is of interest to others with mappable records they would like to share.

SPIDER DISTRIBUTIONS OF BC

The maps are based off the most recent spider checklist hosted by E-Fauna BC (https://ibis.geog.ubc.ca/biodiversity/efauna/documents/BC_Spider_Checklist_25_Mar_020_FINAL.PDF) and the map and links to Bugguide and the World Spider Catalog were developed by David Blades. *

There are a couple of iNaturalist projects that support this work and that can also be useful for helping with identifications. The first, The Spider Diversity of British Columbia Project (https://inaturalist.ca/projects/the-spider-diversity-of-british-columbia-project) has the following goals:

• amass representative photos of BC spider taxa,
• collect habitat and distributional information for BC spiders,
• connect people interested in the Araneae of BC,
• provide taxonomic resources, and
• foster an appreciation for this diverse group of arachnids in the province of BC.

A second iNaturalist project is meant to overcome the difficulty of identifying many invertebrates from photos: the Royal BC Museum Vouchering Project (https://inaturalist.ca/projects/royal-bc-museum-vouchering-project) involves the collection of specimens for expert identification after they have been photographed and the photos posted to iNaturalist. For now we are focusing only on spiders (Order Araneae) because the taxonomic expertise is available for the identification work, which involves dissection of “naughty parts” and microscopes.

If you are interested in being involved in either or both of these projects please refer to the spider photography and spider collecting tips information below.

HARVESTMAN DISTRIBUTIONS OF BC

The Opiliones (Harvestmen or Daddy-long-legs) maps are based off the BC checklist (Bragg & Holmberg 2009) as well as the observations on INaturalist, records from the Centre for Biodiversity Genomics lab at Guelph, the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) and recent museum specimens. We are grateful for all the work others have done to pave the way for this new resource – the second in what could be a series of taxa, just requiring geo-referenced records.

Bragg P.D.., Holmberg R.G. (2009) The harvestmen (Arachnida, Opiliones) of British Columbia. Journal of the Entomological Society of British Columbia 106: 29–37. https://journal.entsocbc.ca/index.php/journal/article/view/25

SNAKEFLIES OF NORTH AMERICA

The Snakeflies of North America (Insecta: Raphidioptera) is a listing of all known species with maps based on data from GBIF and the Canadian National Collection.