[PW] Ashtabula genus of jumping spiders

[Michael J. Lowrey]

On 3/1/07, Douglas Eric Anderson <andersdo at oplin.org> wrote:
> This one is for me:
>
> In random surfing about the city where I live and work (Ashtabula, Ohio),
> I stumbled across a brief mention of "Ashtabula" as the name of a genus of
> Latin American jumping spiders.
>
> I am curious as to how and why this genus got the name.
>
> Pictures: http://tolweb.org/Ashtabula/2879
> Entry from the Global Species Database of Salticidae (Araneae):
> http://www.gsd-salt.miiz.waw.pl/salticidae.php

> >From "A pictorial key to genera of the Latin America Salticidae":
> http://salticidae.org/salticid/diagnost/keys-sal/lat-uni.htm (scroll down
> to section II/20)
> Wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashtabula_(spider)
>
> Evidently the researchers who first described the species (and probably
> assigned the genus name) were a pair named Peckham and Peckham (presumably
> either a father-son, husband-wife, or sibling pair).  Unfortunately, the
> surname "Peckham" is not to be found in any of the local history books or
> indices we have in Ashtabula, so that isn't much to go on as to the why of
> the genus name.
>
> Here is the citation given at one of the above sites for the first
> taxonomic description of the Ashtabula genus:
>
> Peckham G.W., Peckham E.G. 1894 Spiders of the Marptusa Group. Occ. Pap.
> Nat. Hist. Soc. Wisc. 2 (2): 140 ., illustrations T. 14 F. 4
>
> So we now have initials for the Peckhams; and they published in the (?)
> Occasional Papers of the Natural History Society of Wisconsin, for
> whatever that's worth.

There were only three of them, published from 1889-1896. All three
papers are by George W. and Elizabeth G. Peckham, and deal with
Attidae (jumping spiders), except for v. 1, no. 2, which is by
Elizabeth G. Peckham and deals with spiders in general.
	
Peckham, George W. (George Williams), 1845-1894 & Peckham, Elizabeth G., 1854-?


> Does anyone have access to that publication, and if so, would you be
> willing to email/fax/mail us a copy for our local history/clippings files?

According to WisCat, they are held in the Milwaukee Public Museum
Reference Library; the
UW-Madison Biology Library; the UW-Madison Memorial Library [an ILL
Lender] and the Wisconsin Historical Society Library [an ILL Lender].
The Milwaukee Public Museum (formerly owned by the city, then the
county, now quasi-privatized) is the successor to the NHS of Wisconsin
(a/k/a the Naturhistorischen Vereins von Wisconsin), which was founded
about the same time as the city and state (probably by Increase Lapham
and others, knowing Friend Lapham). [[Further googling shows me that
it was founded in his office!
http://content.wisconsinhistory.org/cdm4/document.php?CISOROOT=/tp&CISOPTR=15841&REC=14
]]

-- 
Michael J. "Orange Mike" Lowrey

"When I get a little money I buy books; and if any is left, I buy food
and clothes."
     --  Desiderius Erasmus