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The rarely encountered spider genusHexurellaGertsch & Platnick, 1979 includes some of the smallest mygalomorph spiders in the world, with four poorly known taxa from central and southeastern montane Arizona, southern California, and northern Baja California Norte. At time of description the genus was known from fewer than 20 individuals, with sparse natural history information suggesting a vagrant, web-building, litter-dwelling natural history. Here the first published taxonomic and natural history information for this taxon is provided in more than 50 years, working from extensive new geographic sampling, consideration of male and female morphology, and sequence capture-based nuclear phylogenomics and mitogenomics. Several new species are easily diagnosed based on distinctive male morphologies, while a complex of populations from central and northern Arizona required an integrative combination of genomic algorithmic species delimitation analyses and morphological study. Four new species are described, includingH. ephedrasp. nov.,H. uwiiltilsp. nov.,H. xericasp. nov., andH. zassp. nov.Females ofH. encinaGertsch & Platnick, 1979 are also described for the first time. It is predicted that additional new species will ultimately be found in the mountains of central and northwestern Arizona, northern mainland Mexico, and the Mojave Desert of California.
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Research in Boraginaceae: A new variety of Cryptantha maritima, Cryptantha pondii resurrected, and Johnstonella echinosepala transferred back to Cryptantha
A review of the species Cryptantha maritima (Boraginaceae) supports the continued recognition of the three varieties, these differing in corolla size, ovule and nutlet number, and calyx vestiture. Mapping of these taxa from verified specimens demonstrates some geographic trends, but also some overlap in ranges. In the process of our study, we discovered a new taxonomic entity. Cryptantha maritima var. vizcainensis is described as new. This variety is restricted to the Vizcaíno Desert of Baja California Sur, Mexico and should be considered rare, as it is known to date from only eleven collections. It differs from the other three varieties of the species in having a canescent, appressed-strigose stem vestiture lacking spreading trichomes, in having a relatively large corolla, and in having a fruit derived from two 1-ovuled ovary lobes, developing into two heteromorphic nutlets. We also discovered that the species Cryptantha pondii, previously treated as a synonym of C. patula, should be resurrected as a distinct taxon. Cryptantha pondii is restricted to the western Vizcaíno Desert and to Natividad Island of Baja California Sur. It is morphologically distinctive in having bracteate flowers, relatively large corollas, and four smooth nutlets heteromorphic by size. It is to date known from only three collections and should be considered extremely rare. We also reviewed the morphological and phylogenetic status of Johnstonella echinosepala. This taxon shows similarities to Cryptantha maritima and also exhibits some morphological discontinuity between Pacific and Gulf populations in Baja California Sur. Evidence from both morphological and phylogenetic studies supports the transfer of this species from the genus Johnstonella back to the genus Cryptantha. Finally, we propose that both C. pondii and C. echinosepala are likely close relatives of C. maritima, all of the “Maritimae clade,” a group distantly related to the main core of the genus Cryptantha. This study confirms the great importance of studying herbarium specimens in taxonomic research.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1802301
- PAR ID:
- 10434276
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Phytotaxa
- Volume:
- 509
- Issue:
- 2
- ISSN:
- 1179-3155
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.11646/phytotaxa.509.2.3
