Resumen “Pioneras: Las Científicas del Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales” es un ciclo que se inició en el mes de marzo del año 2019 en el marco del Día Internacional de la Mujer. Este ciclo surgió a partir de un grupo de mujeres autoconvocadas del Museo y tiene por objetivo reconocer y homenajear la labor de las primeras mujeres que desempeñaron actividades científicas dentro de nuestra Institución. En su tercera edición (2021), el ciclo rindió homenaje a tres brillantes profesionales y pioneras de la aracnología: Berta S. Gerschman de Pikelin, Rita D. E. Schiapelli y María Elena Galiano. Estas tres investigadoras han dedicado su carrera científica al estudio de arañas neotropicales. A lo largo de su trayectoria, no sólo han dado origen a la Colección Nacional de Aracnología del Museo, sino que también han dejado un legado de más de 150 trabajos científicos publicados y alrededor de 200 nuevas especies descriptas, construyendo una base sólida para investigaciones futuras.

Abstract “Pioneers: Women Scientists of the Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales’’ is a cycle that began in March 2019 within the framework of the International Women’s Day. It began as an initiative of a self-convened group of working women of the Museum, with the aim of recognizing and honoring the trajectories of the first women who carried out scientific activities within our Institution. In the third edition (2021), the cycle paid tribute to three brilliant professionals and pioneers in arachnology: Berta S. Gerschman de Pikelin, Rita D. E. Schiapelli, and María Elena Galiano. These three researchers dedicated their scientific careers to studying Neotropical spi ders. Along their careers, they built up the Arachnology National Collection. Furthermore, they left a legacy of more than 150 published papers and nearly 200 new described species, providing a solid basis for future scientific research.

Cytogenetic studies of the family Lycosidae (Arachnida: Araneae) are scarce. Less than 4% of the described species have been analyzed and the male haploid chromosome numbers ranged from 8+X 1 X 2 to 13+X 1 X 2 . Species formerly classified as Lycosa were the most studied ones. Our aim in this work was to perform a comparative analysis of the meiosis in " Lycosa " erythrognatha Lucas, " Lycosa " pampeana Holmberg and Schizocosa malitiosa (Tullgren). We also compared male and female karyotypes and characterized the heterochromatin of " L. " erythrognatha . The males of the three species had 2n = 22, n = 10+X 1 X 2 , all the chromosomes were telocentric and there was generally a single chiasma per bivalent. In " Lycosa " pampeana , which is described cytogenetically for the first time herein, the bivalents and sex chromosomes showed a clustered arrangement at prometaphase I. The comparison of the male/female karyotypes (2n = 22/24) of " Lycosa " erythrognatha revealed that the sex chromosomes were the largest of the complement and that the autosomes decreased gradually in size. The analysis of the amount, composition and distribution of heterochromatin with C-banding and staining with DAPI- and CMA 3 - showed that " Lycosa " erythrognatha had little GC-rich heterochromatin in the pericentromeric region of all chromosomes. In addition, the actual occurrence of the genus Lycosa in the Southern Hemisphere is discussed.