Discovery of two new species of eyeless spiders within a single Hispaniola cave

Bloom, Trevor; Binford, Greta J.; Esposito, Lauren A.; García, Giraldo Alayón; Peterson, Ian A B; Nishida, Alex H.; Loubet-Senear, Katy; Agnarsson, Ingi

doi:10.1636/k13-84.1

Cited by 19 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…To amplify COI we used the primers LCO 1490 and HCO 2198 (Folmer et al 1994). PCR conditions and sequencing protocols were described previously (Bloom et al 2014; McHugh et al 2014). Sequences were submitted to GenBank (see Suppl.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Phylogeography of a good Caribbean disperser: Argiope argentata (Araneae, Araneidae) and a new ‘cryptic’ species from Cuba

Agnarsson¹,

LeQuier²,

Kuntner³

et al. 2016

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The Caribbean islands harbor rich biodiversity with high levels of single island endemism. Stretches of ocean between islands represent significant barriers to gene-flow. Yet some native species are widespread, indicating dispersal across oceans, even in wingless organisms like spiders. Argiope argentata (Fabricius, 1775) is a large, charismatic, and widespread species of orb-weaving spider ranging from the United States to Argentina and is well known to balloon. Here we explore the phylogeography of Argiope argentata in the Caribbean as a part of the multi-lineage CarBio project, through mtDNA haplotype and multi-locus phylogenetic analyses. The history of the Argiope argentata lineage in the Caribbean goes back 3-5 million years and is characterized by multiple dispersal events and isolation-by-distance. We find a highly genetically distinct lineage on Cuba which we describe as Argiope butchko sp. n. While the argentata lineage seems to readily balloon shorter distances, stretches of ocean still act as filters for among-island gene-flow as evidenced by distinct haplotypes on the more isolated islands, high FST values, and strong correlation between intraspecific (but not interspecific) genetic and geographic distances. The new species described here is clearly genetically diagnosable, but morphologically cryptic, at least with reference to the genitalia that typically diagnose spider species. Our results are consistent with the intermediate dispersal model suggesting that good dispersers, such as our study species, limit the effect of oceanic barriers and thus diversification and endemism.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Phylogeography of a good Caribbean disperser: Argiope argentata (Araneae, Araneidae) and a new ‘cryptic’ species from Cuba

Agnarsson¹,

LeQuier²,

Kuntner³

et al. 2016

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“…The association of troglobiont and troglophile spiders is common, as different species usually exploit distinct ecological niches. Coexistence of multiple troglobionts in the same cave is less frequent [4,40,56,97], and often mediated by niche partitioning.…”

Section: (C) Cave Communities and Interspecific Competitionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spiders in caves

Mammola

Isaia

2017

Proc. R. Soc. B.

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World experts of different disciplines, from molecular biology to macroecology, recognize the value of cave ecosystems as ideal ecological and evolutionary laboratories. Among other subterranean taxa, spiders stand out as intriguing model organisms for their ecological role of top predators, their unique adaptations to the hypogean medium and their sensitivity to anthropogenic disturbance. As the description of the first eyeless spider (Stalita taenaria), an array of papers on subterranean spider biology, ecology and evolution has been published, but a comprehensive review on these topics is still lacking. We provide a general overview of the spider families recorded in hypogean habitats worldwide, we review the different adaptations of hypogean spiders to subterranean life, and we summarize the information gathered so far about their origin, population structure, ecology and conservation status. Finally, we point out the limits of the knowledge we currently have regarding hypogean spiders, aiming to stimulate future research. BackgroundReceiving poor energy inputs and being light-deficient, caves are generally considered extreme environments, characterized by low abundance and diversity of organisms. Because of their extraordinary adaptations, cave-dwelling animals offer unique study opportunities for pushing forward our current understanding of evolutionary and ecological processes [1,2]. Among other subterranean taxa, spiders are distinctive for their ecological role of top predators [3][4][5], and for the variety of functional adaptations [6], therefore representing undervalued models for the understanding the evolution of life in extreme habitats. Accordingly, subterranean spiders have served as models for physiological [7][8][9], ecological [4,5,[10][11][12], ethological [13,14] and biogeographic studies [15][16][17], among others.However, compared with other animal groups, the potential of spiders as model organisms is still under-expressed. It is possible that the paucity of studies is related to the difficulty of working in subterranean habitats and to the rarity of most subterranean species, which pose major impediments to data collection and analysis. In addition, the general lack of a state of the art on subterranean spider biology, ecology and evolution conceivably hinders advances in knowledge. In this review, we present a collection of information about spiders colonizing subterranean habitats-especially caves-and discuss their relevance in the understanding of cave life evolution and the ecology of subterranean animal communities. (a) Terminology and acronymsWe use the term troglobiomorphism to distinguish the suite of adaptations, especially morphological, to subterranean life [18]. Despite the fact that ecological categorizations often oversimplify real cases and boundaries between categories can be vague, for the sake of this review, we use the traditional speleobiological nomenclature [19] to indicate ecological distributions of species:(1) a troglobiont is strongly bound to hypogean habitats...

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“…1) holds a long and rich history of entomological research and discovery. After nearly two centuries of entomological studies [1], we are still collecting and describing many new species of terrestrial arthropods (e.g., [2], and references therein, [3][4][5][6][7]). The > 700 islets and islands of the Caribbean (~240, 000 km 2 ), their dramatic elevational gradients (− 39 m to + 3098 m), and their proximity to two continents (North and South America) have resulted in a hyperdiversity of arthropods that can be both a boon and a pitfall for research.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Towards a synthesis of the Caribbean biogeography of terrestrial arthropods

Crews

Esposito

2020

BMC Evol Biol

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Background: The immense geologic and ecological complexity of the Caribbean has created a natural laboratory for interpreting when and how organisms disperse through time and space. However, competing hypotheses compounded with this complexity have resulted in a lack of unifying principles of biogeography for the region. Though new data concerning the timing of geologic events and dispersal events are emerging, powerful new analytical tools now allow for explicit hypothesis testing. Arthropods, with varying dispersal ability and high levels of endemism in the Caribbean, are an important, albeit understudied, biogeographic model system. Herein, we include a comprehensive analysis of every publicly available genetic dataset (at the time of writing) of terrestrial Caribbean arthropod groups using a statistically robust pipeline to explicitly test the current extent of biogeographic hypotheses for the region. Results: Our findings indicate several important biogeographic generalizations for the region: the South American continent is the predominant origin of Caribbean arthropod fauna; GAARlandia played a role for some taxa in aiding dispersal from South America to the Greater Antilles; founder event dispersal explains the majority of dispersal events by terrestrial arthropods, and distance between landmasses is important for dispersal; most dispersal events occurred via island hopping; there is evidence of 'reverse' dispersal from islands to the mainland; dispersal across the present-day Isthmus of Panama generally occurred prior to 3 mya; the Greater Antilles harbor more lineage diversity than the Lesser Antilles, and the larger Greater Antilles typically have greater lineage diversity than the smaller islands; basal Caribbean taxa are primarily distributed in the Greater Antilles, the basal-most being from Cuba, and derived taxa are mostly distributed in the Lesser Antilles; Jamaican taxa are usually endemic and monophyletic. Conclusions: Given the diversity and deep history of terrestrial arthropods, incongruence of biogeographic patterns is expected, but focusing on both similarities and differences among divergent taxa with disparate life histories emphasizes the importance of particular qualities responsible for resulting diversification patterns. Furthermore, this study provides an analytical toolkit that can be used to guide researchers interested in answering questions pertaining to Caribbean biogeography using explicit hypothesis testing.

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Discovery of two new species of eyeless spiders within a single Hispaniola cave

Cited by 19 publications

References 25 publications

Phylogeography of a good Caribbean disperser: Argiope argentata (Araneae, Araneidae) and a new ‘cryptic’ species from Cuba

Phylogeography of a good Caribbean disperser: Argiope argentata (Araneae, Araneidae) and a new ‘cryptic’ species from Cuba

Spiders in caves

Towards a synthesis of the Caribbean biogeography of terrestrial arthropods

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