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  • Species delimitation, biogeography, and natural history of dwarf funnel web spiders (Mygalomorphae, Hexurellidae, Hexurella) from the United States / Mexico borderlands
Title: Species delimitation, biogeography, and natural history of dwarf funnel web spiders (Mygalomorphae, Hexurellidae, Hexurella) from the United States / Mexico borderlands
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.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
1937725
PAR ID:
10569436
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ;
Publisher / Repository:
Pensoft
Date Published:
Journal Name:
ZooKeys
Volume:
1167
ISSN:
1313-2989
Page Range / eLocation ID:
109 to 157
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
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