A Natural Colonisation of Asia: Phylogenomic and Biogeographic History of Coin Spiders (Araneae: Nephilidae: Herennia)

Abstract

Reconstructing biogeographic history is challenging when dispersal biology of studied species is poorly understood, and they have undergone a complex geological past. Here, we reconstruct the origin and subsequent dispersal of coin spiders (Nephilidae: Herennia Thorell), a clade of 14 species inhabiting tropical Asia and Australasia. Specifically, we test whether the all-Asian range of Herennia multipuncta is natural vs. anthropogenic. We combine Anchored Hybrid Enrichment phylogenomic and classical marker phylogenetic data to infer species and population phylogenies. Our biogeographical analyses follow two alternative dispersal models: ballooning vs. walking. Following these assumptions and considering measured distances between geographical areas through temporal intervals, these models infer ancestral areas based on varying dispersal probabilities through geological time. We recover a wide ancestral range of Herennia including Australia, mainland SE Asia and the Philippines. Both models agree that H. multipuncta internal splits are generally too old to be influenced by humans, thereby implying its natural colonisation of Asia, but suggest quite different colonisation routes of H. multipuncta populations. The results of the ballooning model are more parsimonious as they invoke fewer chance dispersals over large distances. We speculate that coin spiders’ ancestor may have lost the ability to balloon, but that H. multipuncta regained it, thereby colonising and maintaining larger areas.

Towards better-informed dispersal probabilities in historical biogeography: Arachnids as a model lineage

“…In practice, inclusion of all listed elements in Figure 1 may not always be feasible, primarily due to lack of data. We demonstrate this below on three case studies on spiders that have pioneered this concept of arriving at better-informed dispersal probabilities in historical biogeography (Turk et al, 2020;Turk et al, 2021a;Magalhaes and Ramıŕez, 2022).…”

“…In the second case study, Turk et al (2021a) zoomed into a subset of the family phylogeny, into the biogeography of coin spiders (the genus Herennia) from Asia and Australasia. The studied geographical area is characterized by a complex geological past, complicating biogeographic reconstruction.…”

The seven grand challenges in arachnid science

“…Kuntner and Turk (2022) argue that among the elements needed for historical biogeographic inference, the estimations of organismal dispersal probabilities are particularly vague, representing the bottle neck in historical biogeography. Their appeal for dispersal probability estimations that are better informed and biologically meaningful has so far only been tested on spiders (Turk et al, 2020;Turk et al, 2021;Magalhaes and Ramirez (2022)). If the better devised estimations of dispersal probability are accepted by this community, then perhaps arachnids will be established as the model lineage of choice for applications of the next-generation biogeography (Kuntner and Turk, 2022).…”

Phylogenomic, Biogeographic, and Evolutionary Research Trends in Arachnology

“…In another biogeographical paper titled "A Natural Colonisation of Asia: Phylogenomic and Biogeographic History of Coin Spiders (Araneae: Nephilidae: Herennia)" [7], Eva Turk and colleagues report on a reconstructed evolutionary history of the nephilid spider genus Herennia. Known as coin spiders for their undulating abdominal shape, Herennia features numerous species that are narrow endemics in Southeast Asia and Australasia, as well as one widespread and common species, H. multipuncta.…”

“…This study further used an innovative biogeographic approach with dispersal probabilities depending on continental and island tectonic histories in appropriate time slices in Earth's past, as well as the natural history of the organisms. First proposed for nephilid spiders globally, Turk et al [7] modified this novel approach here.…”