Checklist of the spiders (Araneae) of British Columbia

The lack of conservation concern regarding spiders relative to other taxa is notable, particularly in light of the fact that more than 40% (357) of the native species of spiders in the province are represented by five or fewer collection records. Specimens of most of these species were housed in collections of institutions other than the Royal British Columbia Museum (RBCM, Victoria, British Columbia; especially, in the Canadian National Collection, Ottawa, Ontario and the American Museum of Natural History, New York, United States of America), and until the 1980s, the RBCM collection consisted of only a few dozen specimens, primarily common and widespread or introduced species. Subsequently, the RBCM's field work from 2008 through 2021 (augmented by input from arachnological friends and colleagues) has significantly increased the number of localities in the province that have been sampled for spiders (Bennett et al. 2020) and the number of spider species known to occur in the province. The series of British Columbia spider species e-checklists (Bennett et al. 2010, 2012, 2014, 2017, 2020) presented 700, 729, 780, 859, and 893 taxa respectively. Since 2006, an average of more than 20 species has been added annually to the total.