Solifuge (camel spider) reproductive biology: an untapped taxon for exploring sexual selection

Peretti, Alfredo V.; Vrech, David E.; Hebets, Eileen A.

doi:10.1636/joa-s-20-037

Cited by 5 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 90 publications

(131 reference statements)

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“…Duran et al, 2021), group-living (e.g. Avileś andGuevara, 2017, Schausberger, et al, 2021b), sexual selection (Proctor, 1998;Herberstein et al, 2014;Oku, 2014;Andrade, 2019;Peretti et al, 2021), or phenotypic plasticity ( Agrawal et al, 2002, Walzer andSchausberger, 2011;Evans et al, 2019;Yip et al, 2021;Schausberger and Rendon, 2022), just to mention some areas. One of the cornerstones of Behavioral Ecology is quantifying the adaptive value of a given behavior.…”

Section: Conceptual Issuesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Grand challenges and bold opportunities in arachnid ecology and behavior

Schausberger

2022

Front. Arachn. Sci.

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BackgroundThe Arachnida represent a mega-diverse lineage within the Arthropoda and are the second largest (speciose) class of invertebrates (first are the insects with around 955.000 described species), with about 91.200 (https://www.catalogueoflife.org/) to 114.200 (Zhang, 2013) species named and described (90% of which are spiders and mites/ticks) but an estimated 1 to 1.5 million species, especially mites, waiting to be detected and named (Krantz and Walter, 2009;Walter and Proctor, 2013;Zhang, 2013). The number of currently known arachnid species is more than all vertebrates together, although the arachnid species number is just about 1/10 th to 1/15 th of the estimated number of species truly present, yet is in comparison close to being complete in the vertebrates (70.300 described species) (https://www.catalogueoflife.org/). Arachnids are similar to insects in evolutionary success and history. The fossil history of the Chelicerata, to which the Arachnida belong to, dates back to 500 million years ago. The Arachnida comprise groups, such as the Acari (mites and ticks), that are extremely diverse and can be found about anywhere in the world, from aquatic to terrestrial, from rainforests to deserts, from mountain tops to valleys, from the icy Arctic and Antarctic to burning hot deserts (Krantz and Walter, 2009;Walter and Proctor, 2013), while others are almost exclusively terrestrial but similarly diverse in habitat use, i.e. the Araneae (spiders), with just one truly aquatic species (e.g. Foelix 2010, Dimitrov and Hormiga, 2021). While the Araneae are comparatively homogenous in foraging stylesall are true predators and most are prey generalists, yet showing an impressive array of true predation styles, from ambushing to active hunting to luring and trappingthe Acari are very diverse, from strictly parasitic throughout life, to changing between parasitic and free-living, to living on the same host throughout life and over several generations, to changing hosts to being always free-living, from fungivores, detritivores to herbivores, carnivores and omnivores, from habitat and diet generalists to extreme specialists exploiting just one type of food or individual host (e.g. Walter and Proctor, 2013). Extreme diversity and variability also apply to reproductive modes, which span from sexual direct and indirect sperm transfer to asexual cloning (thelytoky). Together, the arachnids are mega-diverse in all major aspects of ecology and behavior.The grand challenges presented here are viewed from an arachnid perspective though some are not specific to arachnids, as are some overarching questions addressed in arachnid research. The challenges and opportunities mentioned are not meant to be exhaustive, are certainly partly subjective and growing out of own current interests and Frontiers in Arachnid Science frontiersin.org 01

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Section: Conceptual Issuesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Grand challenges and bold opportunities in arachnid ecology and behavior

Schausberger

2022

Front. Arachn. Sci.

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Waking beauties: Mating quiescence in arachnid females

Cargnelutti¹,

Bollatti²,

Izquierdo³

et al. 2023

Advances in the Study of Behavior

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Camel spider trait evolution demonstrates repeated patterns of convergence (Arachnida: Solifugae: Eremobatidae)

Garcia,

Hansen,

Cushing

2024

Insect Systematics and Diversity

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Morphology has long been used to classify and identify living organisms. However, taxonomic descriptions are often limited to qualitative descriptions of size and shape, making identification difficult due to the subjective language used to describe complex shapes. Additionally, for some taxa, there are few reliable qualitative characters available for delimitation that have yet to be tested objectively in a phylogenetic context. Solifugae is one such example. The order, Solifugae, is recognized from the other arachnid orders by the possession of large, powerful jaws or chelicerae. Male cheliceral morphology is the leading diagnostic character system in solifuge systematics and is the basis for much of solifuge current taxonomy. Female chelicerae, on the other hand, are reportedly deeply conserved and much of the species identification is based on female operculum morphology. To elucidate patterns of chelicerae and opercula trait evolution within the solifuge family, Eremobatidae, we used a 2-dimenstional morphological analysis using an Elliptical Fourier approach for closed outlines, in addition to an analysis of traditionally used measures in a phylogenetic context. Using ancestral state reconstruction and ultra-conserved elements, we assessed the taxonomic utility of female cheliceral and opercular morphology, and we evaluated which male morphological characters reflect shared, derived ancestry. Investigation into ubiquitously used character sets, in addition to newly proposed characters herein, illustrates the complex evolution of traits with high levels of convergence. Our results provide taxonomic insight into future, higher level taxonomic revisions of Eremobatidae.

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Solifuge (camel spider) reproductive biology: an untapped taxon for exploring sexual selection

Abstract: BioOne Complete (complete.BioOne.org) is a full-text database of 200 subscribed and open-access titles in the biological, ecological, and environmental sciences published by nonprofit societies, associations, museums, institutions, and presses.

Cited by 5 publications

References 90 publications

Grand challenges and bold opportunities in arachnid ecology and behavior

Grand challenges and bold opportunities in arachnid ecology and behavior

Waking beauties: Mating quiescence in arachnid females

Camel spider trait evolution demonstrates repeated patterns of convergence (Arachnida: Solifugae: Eremobatidae)

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