A Mineola High School senior performing a research project at Dowling College last summer apparently made what is usually a once-in-a-lifetime discovery for researchers – a new species.
Gabrielle Ward said she was combing through leaves in a section of the Long Island Pine Barrens when she came across a spider that fit no known species.
The new spider, part of the family Salticidae and the genus Sarinda, is smaller than a dime and is part of the jumping spider family. When she put it under the microscope, Ward noticed that while its markings were similar to two other species in the same family and genus there were anomalies that didn’t fit with the other spiders.
“It’s really interesting and the first thing that runs through your head is ‘Wow, I’m the first person to see this’,” Ward said. “You have a feeling of accomplishment like when you ride a bicycle for the first time. You feel overwhelmed with happiness and it reassured me this is what I want to do with my life.”
Her mentor at Dowling, Dr. Richard Wilkens, gave her time to examine the spider further and draw her own conclusion.
“He left it alone with me and said he didn’t think it was a jumping spider,” she recalled.
Ward is now writing a research paper on her discovery with her Dowling mentor, which will be subject a review by peers in the field.
If confirmed, Ward will receive the ultimate honor for researchers who discover new species – naming the species.
While Ward could name the new species after herself, she said she would instead honor the memory of a young boy for whom she used to baby sit, Jack Perlonger, who died of cancer at age five.
If the new species is confirmed, she said, it will be called Jackper.
“He was very vibrant and very bright,” Ward said.
Ward made her discovery in the course of spending three hours a day twice weekly over five weeks combing a section of the Long Island Pine Barrens where vegetation had been burned for spiders and other insects.
Ward was specifically responsible for classifying all spiders that were found living in galls – deformations on shrub oak leaves – taken from the burn zone. The galls are left by wasps that lay eggs in them. Once the spider larvae leave, other spiders inhabit the deformed leaves.
Ward’s introduction to the program occurred during a science fair at Dowling College last year when Ward heard a talk about identifying species as part of “The Abandoned Gall Project” and she was intrigued.
“That one talk seemed interesting,” she recalled.
So she applied to be part of the summer research project to identify various species of insect, focusing on spiders, which she collected and then analyzed with an electron microscope in the laboratory.
“We collect the spiders, preserve them in ethanol,” Ward said. “We identify them and then reidentify them and reidentify them to make sure we’re got it down.”
“Overall this is going to add to the grand scale of the [abandoned gall] project,” Ward said.
She has already submitted material for this month’s Long Island Science and Engineering Fair and the Science and Mathematics Fair at Dowling in April. She is also continuing to do research at Dowling on Fridays and plans to return there to conduct more research next summer.
Then it’s off to college, where Ward said she plans to major in biology as part of a pre-med program where she goes to school.
“An author as a high school student is very rare,” said Ellen McGlade-McCulloh, Ward’s research science teacher at Mineola High.
John Gollisz, science instructional leader at the high school, said, “In this day and age when we’re losing species, she comes along and finds a new one.”
Gollisz said her research experience will enable her accelerated access to research classes in college, which she would normally not be able to take until her junior or senior year.
But science research isn’t her only aspiration beyond high school. An experienced dancer and actor, Ward plans to minor in theater arts in college.
“Theater is another passion of mine,” she said.
She also plays the mellophone in the Mineola High School Marching Band and she attended band camp last summer after her research stint at Dowling.
