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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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Phylogenomics of Lasiodoriforms: reclassification of the South American genus Vitalius Lucas, Silva and Bertani and allied genera (Araneae: Theraphosidae)
Theraphosinae is the most diverse subfamily of Theraphosidae spiders, but their evolutionary history remains unresolved to date. This problem is common in taxonomic groups with phylogenetic hypotheses that have often been based only on qualitative morphological characters and, rarely, on molecular analyses. Phylogenomics has significantly contributed to the understanding of the evolution of many non-model groups, such as spiders. Herein, we employed ultraconserved elements (UCEs) phylogenomics to propose a new hypothesis for a group of Theraphosinae genera, namely Lasiodoriforms:Vitalius, Lasiodora, Eupalaestrus, Pterinopelma, Proshapalopus, andNhandu. We propose three genera and their respective morphological diagnoses are provided. Our phylogeny supports the transfer of species from the genusVitaliustoPterinopelmaandProshapalopusand fromProshapalopustoEupalaestrus. Finally, we describe a new species ofVitaliusfrom Southern Brazil. Based on these three new generic descriptions and transferred species, the Lasiodoriform tarantulas comprise nine genera from Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay, and the genusVitaliusnow includes seven species.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2144339
- PAR ID:
- 10555737
- Publisher / Repository:
- Frontiers in Ecology & Evolution
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution
- Volume:
- 11
- ISSN:
- 2296-701X
- 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/10.3389/fevo.2023.1177627
