In
December 2003 I was kindly invited to give two talks at the meeting of
the Latin American arachnologists in São Paulo. After that, I had
the chance to visit some Atlantic rainforest sites in Sao Pãulo
State: Ubatuba, Paranapiacaba, Cantareira, and the forest at the Jardim
Zoologico. We had no particular species in mind we wanted to find, but
tried to collect any pholcids we could, especially into pure ethanol for
an ongoing molecular study.
This
image shows a female deinopid, holding her modified orb web with her front
legs. For me as a European it was very special to see this wonderful spider
alive in its habitat. I found it in São Paulo, in the forest that
partly surrounds the city zoo. Our attention, however, was mostly focused
on pholcids, and in one particular site, in a rainforest near Ubatuba,
we found more species per locality than had ever been found before worldwide:
thirteen! This broke our own record from the year before, when we collected
11-12 species in Yacambu National Park, Venezuela.
I
also had the opportunity to spend a few days looking at the spider collection
in Butantan, São Paulo. I knew that there are numerous species undescribed
in South America, but what I saw in Butantan was quite unbelievable. Recent
intense collecting efforts have resulted in so many undescribed species
that I was left wondering who should ever make these known to science. 
I
am most grateful to the organizers of the arachnological meeting for their
invitation and for financing my visit to Brazil. In particular, I am indebted
to Cristina Rheims for arranging the rainforest trips, to Antonio Brescovit
for his invitation to study the Butantan collection, and to my brother-in-law
for assistance in the field.Three publications have resulted entirely from this trip (Huber, Rheims & Brescovit 2005a, 2005b, Huber, Brescovit & Rheims 2005), others have partly profited from it or are in preparation.