Canterbury New Zealand, 10-15 February 2019 — Chen, Foley, and I enjoyed attending the Arachnology Congress this year. Foley presented his research on tarantulas (“Tarantula phylogenomics: A first phylogeny of major theraphosid spider lineages inferred from transcriptome data sheds light on the evolution of urticating setae”) and Chen talked about building leaf retreats in orb weavers (“There’s more than one way to build a leaf retreat: Convergent solutions in orb- and pseudo-orb web spiders”).