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The systematics of humble-in-appearance brown spiders (“marronoids”), within a larger group of spiders with a modified retrolateral tibial apophysis (the RTA Clade), has long vexed arachnologists. Although not yet fully settled, recent phylogenomics has allowed the delimitation and phylogenetic relationships of families within marronoids to come into focus. Understanding relationships within these families still awaits more comprehensive generic-level sampling, as the majority of described marronoid genera remain unsampled for phylogenomic data. Here we conduct such an analysis in the family Cybaeidae Banks, 1892. We greatly increase generic-level sampling, assembling ultraconserved element (UCE) data for 18 of 22 described cybaeid genera, including all North American genera, and rigorously test family monophyly using a comprehensive outgroup taxon sample. We also conduct analyses of traditional Sanger loci, allowing curation of some previously published data. Our UCE phylogenomic results support the monophyly of recognized cybaeids, with strongly supported internal relationships, and evidence for five primary molecular subclades. We hypothesize potential morphological synapomorphies for most of these subclades, bringing a robust phylogenomic underpinning to cybaeid classification. A new cybaeid genusSiskiyugen. nov.and speciesSiskiyu armillasp. nov.is discovered and described from far northern California and adjacent southern Oregon and a new species in the elusive genusCybaeozyga,C. furtivasp. nov., is described from far northern California.
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50 Shades of Red: the red-reticulate group of Goniobranchus (Heterobranchia: Nudibranchia: Chromodorididae)
The Chromodorididae family tree has been refined in recent years via molecular phylogenetic analyses which have clarified many relationships between taxa. The genus Goniobranchus is one clade within Chromodorididae that was previously included within the genus Chromodoris. However, based on recent molecular phylogenetic results, Chromodoris was determined to be non-monophyletic and Goniobranchus was resurrected. In this study, we performed molecular and morphological analyses to resolve the internal relationships among Goniobranchus species, specifically the red-reticulate species complex of three previously described species, Goniobranchus tinctorius, G. reticulatus, and G. alderi, which display a red network of lines over a white mantle and are widely distributed across the Indo-Pacific Ocean. We sequenced two mitochondrial genes (COI and 16S) and one nuclear gene (H3) for 339 Goniobranchus specimens, and in our phylogenetic analyses the red-reticulate species group emerged as a monophyly. This current work has indicated there are at least eleven distinct species within this species complex, including the only three previously described species and another described species, G. splendidus, was added to this clade. The molecular data and the morphological differences among species will be discussed, and we present a possible way forward to clarify the taxonomy of the red-reticulate species complex.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1856407
- PAR ID:
- 10349310
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- World Congress of Malacology Spixiana
- Volume:
- 30A
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 156
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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