Rounding up the usual suspects: a standard target‐gene approach for resolving the interfamilial phylogenetic relationships of ecribellate orb‐weaving spiders with a new family‐rank classification (Araneae, Araneoidea)

Abstract

We test the limits of the spider superfamily Araneoidea and reconstruct its interfamilial relationships using standard molecular markers. The taxon sample (363 terminals) comprises for the first time representatives of all araneoid families, including the first molecular data of the family Synaphridae. We use the resulting phylogenetic framework to study web evolution in araneoids. Araneoidea is monophyletic and sister to Nicodamoidea rank. n. Orbiculariae are not monophyletic and also include the RTA clade, Oecobiidae and Hersiliidae. Deinopoidea is paraphyletic with respect to a lineage that includes the RTA clade, Hersiliidae and Oecobiidae. The cribellate orb‐weaving family Uloboridae is monophyletic and is sister group to a lineage that includes the RTA Clade, Hersiliidae and Oecobiidae. The monophyly of most Araneoidea families is well supported, with a few exceptions. Anapidae includes holarchaeids but the family remains diphyletic even if Holarchaea is considered an anapid. The orb‐web is ancient, having evolved by the early Jurassic; a single origin of the orb with multiple “losses” is implied by our analyses. By the late Jurassic, the orb‐web had already been transformed into different architectures, but the ancestors of the RTA clade probably built orb‐webs. We also find further support for a single origin of the cribellum and multiple independent losses. The following taxonomic and nomenclatural changes are proposed: the cribellate and ecribellate nicodamids are grouped in the superfamily Nicodamoidea rank n. (Megadictynidae rank res. and Nicodamidae stat. n.). Araneoidea includes 17 families with the following changes: Araneidae is re‐circumscribed to include nephilines, Nephilinae rank res., Arkyidae rank n., Physoglenidae rank n., Synotaxidae is limited to the genus Synotaxus, Pararchaeidae is a junior synonym of Malkaridae (syn. n.), Holarchaeidae of Anapidae (syn. n.) and Sinopimoidae of Linyphiidae (syn. n.).

Scaling up DNA barcoding – Primer sets for simple and cost efficient arthropod systematics by multiplex PCR and Illumina amplicon sequencing

“…Relationships between the different spider families generally matched known relationships based on phylogenomic analyses (Fernández, Hormiga, & Giribet, ), separating the “RTA clade”, Araneoidea and Uloboridae. The divergence within the “RTA clade” and the Araneoidea also mirrored current knowledge in spider phylogenetics (Dimitrov et al., ). Additionally, our approach allowed us to resolve shallow divergences between species as well as intraspecific variation, as shown by our analysis of the adaptive radiation in the genus Tetragnatha .…”

From Gondwana to GAARlandia: Evolutionary history and biogeography of ogre‐faced spiders (Deinopis)

“…Specimens were preserved in the field in 95% EtOH. We include 12 outgroup species including near relatives selected based on the most recent phylogenetic analyses of spider families (Bond et al., ; Dimitrov et al., ; Garrison et al., ). See Appendix S1 in Supporting Information for taxon sample information and GPS localities.…”

The spider tree of life: phylogeny of Araneae based on target‐gene analyses from an extensive taxon sampling

“…Coddington, ), molecular analyses have had difficulties obtaining supported resolution for the deep, relevant branches of the phylogeny (Blackledge et al., ; Dimitrov et al., ). The controversy has only lurched to resolution recently through the production of enlarged sequence data sets (Bond et al., ; Fernández et al., ; Garrison et al., ) and extensive taxon sampling for target genes (Dimitrov et al., ). Both strategies suggest the non‐monophyly of orb‐weavers, multiple losses of orb‐webs and continuing uncertainty about the placement of important clades despite large quantities of data.…”

“…A growing number of multi‐family target gene phylogenetic analyses are incrementally covering parts of the spider tree of life. These studies have focused on Mesothelae (Xu et al., ), Mygalomorphae (Bond et al., ; and references therein), Palpimanoidea (Wood et al., ), many on orb‐weavers (Blackledge et al., ; Dimitrov et al., ; and references therein), symphytognathoids (Rix et al., ; Lopardo et al., ; Lopardo and Hormiga, ), entelegynes (J. Miller et al., ; Spagna et al., ), the Oval Calamistrum (OC) clade (Polotow et al., ), psechrids (Agnarsson et al., ; Bayer and Schönhofer, ), eresids (Miller et al., ), pholcids (Dimitrov et al., ) and sparassids (Moradmand et al., ). These analyses show significant agreement as well as important contradictions.…”