Ok this post is a little different from usual. I've never cared to write about a human before so bear with me as I adjust to a biographical tone. I just cannot get enough of spiders, but I also ended up intrigued by a particular naturalist.
So allow me to introduce to you Amalie Dietrich, and a new species of truly marine spider of which has been dedicated to her. The title of this article will become clear further down:
Amalie Dietrich
Amalie grew up in a poor household with her father - a leather worker - and mother in Saxony, Germany. She married Wilhelm Dietrich whose wealthier family allowed her to pursue a growing passion in naturalism. They soon had a daughter and a home, but would go off together on long expeditions while their parents took care of the home.
At some point Wilhelm cheated on Amalie and they parted ways, yet Amalie decided to return to him, trapped by tradition presumably. However, by the time she was 30, she took a leap of independence and left him, took her daughter to Hamburg and found a job as a collector for J. C. Godeffroy in a private museum.
With this opportunity, she sailed off to Australia where she would zealously collect natural specimens as well as indigenous artifacts (more on that controversy later). She was an accomplished woman, having gathered the largest collection of birds by any single person ever, as well as being the first person to collect a deadly, taipan snake.
This is where the spiders come in. Most significantly, she headed The Godeffroy Collection of Arachnids that to this day forms the primary basis of referential work on spiders in Australia.
So, when a new aquatic species of spider was discovered in 2009 and described earlier this year in Australia, it seems appropriate that the researchers pay tribute to her. Perhaps even name the spider after her? Well...
Marine Spiders
Let's refresh about aquatic spiders first. A few months ago I wrote about the Diving Bell Spider, a species that lives its entire life underwater. This might seem unbelievable but to survive they create bell-shaped pockets of air with their webs and live within that pocket, only leaving to hunt and replace oxygen. It would typically feed on tiny fish and shrimp!
It turns out the Diving bell spider is not alone in this endeavour, and there is even an entire genus of intertidal spiders, called Desis, which as its name suggests, lives between the tides. This is a little more extreme to me than the diving bell spider which would typically live in ponds and other small bodies of water; to live where the land meets the sea? That's quite an evolutionary leap!
Like the diving bell, these spiders create pockets of air, but hide away in corals, kelp and barnacle shells, whatever is necessary really. When the tide goes out, they immediately go on the hunt for small bugs and other invertebrates.
Bob Marley Spider
in 2009, a new species of Desis spider has been found in the Great Barrier Reef, north of Queensland, Australia,and when scientists finally got round to describing it earlier this year, it was instantly named after Amalie Diet - Ahem... Bob Marley.
Interestingly, the Desis bobmarleyi's closest relative known is Desis vorax further out east in Samoa. It's a wonder how a species could have gotten across such large bodies of water, but then, 'Life will find a way'. Perhaps they flew over alongside aeroplankton.
These spiders are very difficult to find, and only 13 species of intertidal spiders have been discovered, implying a relatively narrow niche of success in this particular area of expertise. Most look quite similar and both sexes similar to one another too.
The Bob Marley Spider was even harder to find, only having been found at 2am in January during an extremely low tide, uncovering coral that would otherwise be up to 3 metres underwater. There, somehow, reside a bob marley spider, sitting on a Brain coral.
So what does this have to do with Bob Marley?
He, of course, had a well known hit called 'High Tide or Low Tide', but the researchers also felt it was a metaphorical representation of 'the adventurous and resilient at heart' that they also associated with Amalie, who 'sought independence and liberty' to great success.
Amalie's contribution
It is the legacy of Amalie Dietrich, an emancipated woman of remarkable independence, that has been preserved for more than 150 years
Amalie's work collecting 'more than 450 types from Australia and the Pacific Islands' created a vital historical source of context that allows molecular and morphological comparisons with other spider cousins. Historical taxonomic collections are where researchers start to help put discoveries on the right branch of the ever-growing tree of life.
So the researchers were not to forget Amalie, instead dedicating a paragraph to her in the introduction of their research paper. And besides, she has a few species in her name already (Acacia dietrichiana, Bonamia dietrichiana, Nortonia amaliae and Odynerus dietrichianus)
What happened to her?
Well, she died of pneumonia when visiting her daughter, but she also left a somewhat grim legacy. As a collector, she was party to the collection of Australian aboriginal remains. Though there is no evidence that she partook in any mass grave robbing or even genocide which was common in the area at the time, she did make purchases that made her look bad (for her work unfortunately) and in 1991, she posthumously acquired the nickname 'Angel of Black Death'. I wouldn't mind having that title after I'm dead, if I'm honest, but hey-ho.
In life, she was described as such:
...fearless and single-minded in the cause of the natural science she so eagerly learned from her difficult and selfish husband. Completely unconcerned about personal comfort and appearance, she must have seemed unusually eccentric. Within a limited scientific circle she was highly respected as an ardent collector and accurate observer
And, as usual, I have a growing respect for the un-sung heroes of the past that have paved the way for the rest of us to cycle on through.
If you all like this post I'll do what I can to improve on my...ugh... human-based posts when necessary. Cheers!
Sources:
The hard road : the life story of Amalie Dietrich, naturalist 1821-1891
Bischoff, Charitas, 1848-1925.
All other images CC0 Licensed
