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DENVER MUSEUM OF NATURE & SCIENCE
REPORTS
|
No. 3, July 2, 2016
Cushing
Cambridge MA, USA;
3
Departament de Biologia
Animal & Biodiversity Research Institute, Universitat
de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain;
4
Natural History
Museum, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
hormiga@gwu.eduResolving the interfamilial relationships of the ecribel-
late orbweavers (Araneoidea) has proved to be a
recalcitrant phylogenetic problem. This lineage includes
over a quarter of the described spider species and a
remarkable diversity of foraging webs and life history
traits. Understanding this diversity has been hindered by
a lack of a robust hypothesis on the phylogenetic relation-
ships of the main lineages of Araneoidea. Recent studies
using both the standard target-gene approach (and exten-
sive taxon sampling) and phylogenomic methods (albeit
with a modest taxon sample) have refuted the monophyly
of cribellate and ecribellate orb-weavers (Orbiculariae)
and provided support for some interfamilial relationships,
such as the clade that includes the families Mimetidae,
Arkyidae and Tetragnathidae. Unfortunately, much of
the phylogenetic scaffolding of Araneoidea has yet to
be discovered. In this presentation we will report on our
progress to address araneoid relationships through a tran-
scriptomic approach, using a taxon sample that includes
representatives of about 72% of the families of Araneae
and about 90% of the families of Araneoidea.
Keywords: Araneoidea, Orb-weavers, Phylogeny, System-
atics, Web evolution
Oral presentation
A myrmecophilic spider from West Texas
with discussion of biology and taxonomy
Norman Horner
1
, Martin Ramirez
2
, Darrell Ubick
3
,
Norman Platnick
4
, Paula Cushing
5
1
Department of Biology, Midwestern State University,
USA;
2
Division of Arachnology, Museo Argentino
de Ciencias Naturales, Argentina;
3
Department of
Entomology, California Academy of Sciences, USA;
4
Curator Emeritus, American Museum of Natural
History, USA;
5
Curator of Invertebrates, Denver
Museum of Nature & Science, USA
norman.horner@mwsu.eduIn the fall of 1999 a graduate student, Greg Broussard,
found an unusual spider while conducting a survey of
cursorial species. The location was the Dalquest Desert
Research Station (DDRS) in the Chihuahuan Desert of
the Big Bend area of Texas. The family could not be deter-
mined, so specimens were sent to taxonomic authorities
for family placement, which has yet to be determined. In
2011 personnel from the University of New Mexico found
this spider on the surface of an ant mound (
Pogonomyr-
mex rugosus
) 9.7 km S of Cuatro Ciénegas, Coahuila,
Mexico. The DDRS is 335 km (208 mi) from the Mexico
site. Concentrated pitfall collecting near a
P. rugosus
nests on the DDRS has increased the take of this spider. In
the summer of 2015 four specimens were collected from
chambers while digging up a P
. rugosus
nest. To date 127
spiders have been collected from the DDRS and include
51
♂
, 34
♀
and 42 immatures. Details of the symbiotic
relationship are unknown. The morphology of the eyes
suggests that it belongs to a group of
Dionycha
having
orthogonally oriented tapeta in the posterior median eyes,
although the perplexing overall morphology makes it
hard to place the species in any established family.
Student - oral presentation
Blue tarantulas and dancing rainbow
spiders inspire new color technologies
*Bor-Kai Hsiung
1
, Matthew D. Shawkey
1, 2
, Todd A.
Blackledge
1
1
Department of Biology and Integrated Bioscience
Program, The University of Akron, Akron, OH 44325,
USA;
2
Biology Department, Terrestrial Ecology Unit,
Ghent University, Ledeganckstraat 35, 9000 Ghent,
Belgium
bh63@zips.uakron.eduMany spiders exhibit vivid colors that are not produced by
pigments, but rather by optical interference, diffraction,
and scattering — structural colors. Traditionally, struc-
tural color research in nature focused on birds, butterflies
and beetles. But the long evolutionary history and extreme
diversity of spiders provide fruitful new territory. The
repeated evolution of blue in large, nearly blind tarantu-
las and the diversification of sexual display colors in tiny