High species diversity of Phintella and Phintella‐like spiders (Araneae: Salticidae) in Vietnam revealed by DNA‐based species delimitation analyses

Abstract

Salticidae (jumping spiders) usually exhibit pronounced sexual dimorphism in adult morphology, particularly body coloration and size and shape of the first legs. Consequently, the male and female from the same species might be erroneously assigned to different species or even different genera, which could generate synonymies in classification if only morphological data were used. Phintella is a species‐rich genus of Salticidae, which currently exhibits 76 named species. However, the male–female counterpart is unknown for nearly half of the species. In this study, we used a molecular approach to delineate the species boundaries for Phintella and Phintella‐like specimens collected in Vietnam, using morphological information as supporting data. We used three gene fragments (mitochondrial COI, 16S‐ND1, and nuclear 28S) and biogeographical considerations for species delimitation. A total of 22 putative species were recognized: 18 species of the genus Phintella, one species of the genus Lechia (L. squamata), and three species of the genus Phinteloides. Eleven undescribed species were discovered, of which seven have a male–female combination, two species have only males, and two species have only females. The crown age of Phintella was estimated at the Serravallian stage of the Miocene after the increase of species number around 16 MYA. The crown ages of most putative species recognized in this study were estimated in the Pleistocene, and the divergence among sister species likely occurred from the mid‐Miocene to the Pliocene. Our ancestral range reconstruction results showed that the diversification of our ingroup was governed by progressive dispersal events, i.e., Phintella and their related species in Vietnam diversified while expanding their range on the continent. Our results provide fundamental biodiversity data for a high‐diversity genus in Vietnamese Phintella spiders.