Hi and thank you for the reply. I'll accept dead or alive, but I prefer alive. I may be able to get free overnight shipping. I'll give more instructions on shipping when/if you can get some specimens.
Waiting until January is no problem. There's no rush.
At present, we only have some DNA gathered from 23 specimens across eastern US and Canada. Although they are closely related to six-spotted fishing spiders (D. triton), they might be a new, undescribed species of Dolomedes! How have they gone undetected? Perhaps because they resemble juveniles Dolomedes. All we have are these two photos to aid the search:
https://www.boldsystems.org/pics/MGOCF/150821_22175-85%2B1461629936.jpg
https://www.boldsystems.org/pics/MGOCF/150821_22061_and_63-64%2B1461629932.jpg
To my eye, some of your iNat observations resemble these photos. Here are some examples:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/114488472
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/87066708
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/94399548
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/96319324
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/143609438
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/98066866
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/98154256
Most probably, most of these are in fact juveniles. But with a little luck and a lot of specimens, maybe we can get specimens of the new species!
Happy hunting!
Ray
Dece