Paula Cushing is the Department Chair and Curator of Invertebrate Zoology at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science. She began her position in 1998. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Florida in 1995. She is an arachnologist by training and has been doing research on spiders since her freshman year in College. Her research focuses on the diversity of spiders in the Rocky Mountain/Great Plains ecoregion (the Colorado Spider Survey). She also oversees projects exploring the taxonomy, systematics, and natural history, and morphological adaptations of spiders and solifuges. She has published on myrmecophilic spiders (spiders that live inside ant colonies) and their evolutionary relationship with the ant hosts. She has also publisehd numerous taxonomic publications about arachnids in the order Solifugae. He research is supported by funding from the National Science Foundation.
Myrmecomorphs are arthropods that have evolved a morphological resemblance to ants. Myrmecophiles are arthropods that live in or near ant nests and are considered true symbionts. The literature and natural history information about spider myrmecomorphs and myrmecophiles are reviewed. Myrmecomorphy in spiders is generally considered a type of Batesian mimicry in which spiders are gaining protection from predators through their resemblance to aggressive or unpalatable ants. Selection pressure from spider predators and eggsac parasites may trigger greater integration into ant colonies among myrmecophilic spiders.
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