Nadine Dupérré

 

arachnologist & scientific illustrator
dupere.nadine@videotron.ca; nduperre@amnh.org
Short history
I hired Nadine for technical help with my Ph.D. field work. She liked bugs and she did a little bit of drawing for fun. After a pretty exhausting summer working in the boreal forests of Abitibi (Québec), we started to like spiders a little more because we knew they were eating mosquitoes and black flies. Then, for fun, we went to the North Carolina spider class taught by Fred Coyle and Bill Shear***. Since, Nadine developed an incredible sense for spider taxonomy, producing tons of illustrations and completing several ambitious projects. Nadine now works on Oonopidae at the American Museum of Natural History (New York) as a research assistant for Norman Platnick.

*** In fact, we went to that class in order to break the record that Marshal Hedin held for spider collecting. Fred, the fine diplomat that he is, says that Marshal still holds the best solo effort and Nadine and I the best team effort... but the debate is still on, especially over a few beers.
Nadine's first spider drawings (1998). She did these illustrations in Shadab's style, for a strange, tiny "accordéon" spider that we could not ID (we were in New Zealand at the time). We sent these drawings to Ray Foster and he replied: "... this is the rarely seen male of Arachnura feredayi ..." and he added "... very accurate drawings, by the way ..."

Nadine's carreer was launched.

I wish Ray could see what Nadine is doing now.
Nadine completed illustration contracts for Dr. Charles Dondale (Dondale et al. 2003), Dr. Jason Bond (Bond 2005), Dr. Marshal Hedin (Hedin & Dellinger 2005), Dr. Robert Holmberg (Opilionids: Sabacon, in press), and even delved into the beetle world for Dr. Robert Anderson (take a look at the wonderful Curculionidae chapter in Arnett & Thomas 2002). Nadine's most magnificent work appeared in Spider of Québec (Paquin & Dupérré 2003) and Spiders of North America (Ubick et al. 2005)

Up to now, Nadine has produced about 5000 original drawings, participated in many ambitious scientific projects and co-authored about a dozen papers. And you've seen nothing yet! Here are a few of our favorite illustrations from her repertoire. Remember, these are low resolution...
Cicurina n.sp.
Hebestatis theveneti
Microdipoena guttata
Kukulcania arizonica
Jalapyphantes cuernavaca
Pithyohyphantes costatus
Pardosa hyperborea
Maymenna ambita web
Globipes n.sp.
Badumna longiqua web
Caviphantes saxetorum
Scotinotylus majesticus
Gnathonargus unicornis
Antrodiaetus unicolor
Hypochilus bonnetti
Fumontana deprehendor
Sabacon borealis
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