Cristina Luisa Scioscia

Area of Taxonomic Interest: Arachnology

Country: Argentina

Role: Assistant Editor of Bulletin of Zoological Nomenclature

Elected: December 2021

Cristina was interested in Biological Nomenclature since she joined the university to study Biological Sciences. Once graduated, she attended the postgraduate course on Zoological Nomenclature as her doctoral thesis was mainly on Taxonomy of Jumping Spiders. In 1996, the professor who taught the course, Dr. Axel Bachmann, invited her to be his assistant and since 2010, when he retired, the course remained in her charge every year at the Faculty of Exact and Natural Sciences (FCEN), Buenos Aires University (UBA). For more than 20 years she has assisted and advised colleagues and undergraduate and postgraduate students in the resolution of nomenclatural conflicts, and she has also taught the course at several other national universities in Argentina. Since 2020, during the pandemic, the course was delivered in virtual format, which opened the possibility that many students from several Latin American countries could attend it.
She presently holds a number of positions with different institutions in Argentina, and these include Associate Curator (Arachnology Division) and Professional Scientific Researcher with Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales “Bernardino Rivadavia” (MACN - CONICET); Director of the Ecology, Environment and Biodiversity Department and Associate Professor (General Biology and Zoology) at Favaloro University; and Visiting Professor (Postgraduate Course on Zoological Nomenclature) with the Faculty of Exact and Natural Sciences, Buenos Aires University (UBA).

Summary of Research & Education:

Cristina Luisa Scioscia obtained her B.S. in 1983 and her Ph.D. in Biology in 1990 from the Faculty of Exact and Natural Sciences, Buenos Aires University, where she worked on the taxonomy of jumping spiders of the subfamily Dendryphantinae from the Neotropics, supported by scholarships awarded by the National Council for Scientific and Technical Research (CONICET).
In 1988, she entered as a Scientific Researcher at the Museum (MACN) and it is there where she developed her scientific activity to date, and some other management tasks as Head and Curator of the Arachnology Division, Direction Assistant and Member of the Institutional Board.
Over the years, she authored or co-authored numerous papers on taxonomy, biodiversity or cytogenetics on spiders and scorpions, many of which were presented at national and international congresses. She was a responsible member or principal researcher of numerous research projects funded by various state agencies. With regard to human resources training, Cristina was director or co-director of sixteen undergraduate or doctoral theses. She was also a member of examining boards of thesis works in Argentine and Brazil. She was part of more than 70 field trips for collecting arachnid species in wild, preserved, or agroecosystems. She has also been a reviewer as well as a part of the editorial committee for various journals including Revista PHYSIS (Buenos Aires) (Asociación Argentina de Ciencias Naturales - Editor for thirteen years); Revista Ibérica de Aracnología; Revista del Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales; Revista de la Sociedad Entomológica Argentina; Ameghiniana (Asociación Paleontológica Argentina); Revista de Biología Tropical (International Journal of Tropical Biology and Conservation); Caldasia, Gayana; Revista Mexicana de Biodiversidad; Journal of Arachnology; Bulletin of the British Arachnological Society; Zootaxa; New Zealand Journal of Zoology; Integrative Zoology and Check List. Previous to current positions in teaching, Cristina was Head of Lab Work at FCEN-UBA (1987-2005) and Assistant Professor at Favaloro University (2010-2015).

Contact Details:

Dra. Cristina L. Scioscia
Arachnology Division
Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales “Bernardino Rivadavia”.
Av. Angel Gallardo 470 (1405) Buenos Aires, Argentina
Telephone Office: +54 11 49828370 ext. 241
Telephone Mobile: +54 9 11 40843832
E-mail: crisscio [at] yahoo [dot] com [dot] ar