20th International Congress of Arachnology

Buenos Aires, Argentina

piacentini@macn.gov.ar

We present the results of a project aimed at reconstruct-

ing the higher level cladistic relationships on Lycosidae,

through a total evidence analysis. This work is the first

phylogenetic analysis using morphological and molecular

data that covers all the subfamilies of wolf spiders. We

have collected morphological character data for a sample

of more than 90 species of about 70 genera. The morpho-

logical dataset includes about 100 characters, covering

those used in recent phylogenetic analyses of Lycosidae

and Lycosoidea, including genitalic and somatic morphol-

ogy. The molecular dataset includes mitochondrial (COI,

NADH1 and 12S) and nuclear markers (28S, Wingless and

Actin 5C) of more than 60 species distributed on more than

50 genera. Representatives of Trechaleidae, Pisauridae,

Ctenidae, Oxyopidae and Thomisidae were included as out-

groups. The analysis sheds light on the evolutionary history

of biologically important characters for wolf spiders, such

as changes of function in sclerites of the male genital bulb

and their interaction with the female epigyne, the origin of

the sheet webs, and the distribution of the knobbed setae

on the female abdomen. The topology of the obtained tree

generally agrees with previous hypotheses, except for the

subfamilies Zoicinae and Wadicosinae, which are sub-

sumed within Venoniinae and Pardosinae, respectively.

Keywords: Lycosidae, cladistics, morphology, phylogeny,

systematics, taxonomy

Student - poster presentation

The effects of habitat on the active space

of two wolf spiders

*Emily Pickett, George Uetz

Department of Biological Sciences University of Cin-

cinnati PO Box 210006 Cincinnati, OH 45221, USA

picketee@mail.uc.edu

Habitat may place numerous constraints on animal com-

munication. Two closely related lycosid species,

Schizocosa

ocreata

(Hentz 1844) and

S. rovneri

(Uetz and Dondale

1979), are almost identical in morphology, yet are repro-

ductively isolated by courtship behavior and habitat. Male

S. ocreata

exhibit multimodal courtship signals complete

with visual and vibratory components, and occupy upland

deciduous forests; male

S. rovneri

are found in floodplains

and use unimodal vibratory courtship signals. To explore

differences in the active space of male courtship signals

for these two species, we used female orientation as a

bio-indicator of signal transmission in mesocosms repre-

senting each species’ native habitat. Over two consecutive

days, males of both species were randomly assigned to each

mesocosm type. Females were restrained in a clear acetate

ring at one end of the mesocosm, and paired with conspe-

cific males (free to move about and court) for an hour or

until the female oriented towards the male. No significant

difference was found for orientation latency between meso-

cosm types for either species. However, female

S. rovneri

had longer orientation latency and significantly shorter

orientation distance. These results suggest that multi-

modal signals of

S. ocreata

have a larger active space.

Keywords:

S. rovneri, S. ocreata

, vibration, courtship,

sexual selection, ethospecies

Oral presentation

Beta-diversity and phylogeography of Opil-

iones across Brazilian Atlantic Rainforest

Ricardo Pinto-da-Rocha

, Elen Peres

, Andre do Amaral

Nogueira

, Caio Gueratto Coelho da Silva

, Daniel Castro

Pereira

, Yago Monteiro

, Cibele Bragagnolo

, Alipio

Benedetti

, Marcio Bernardino da Silva

Universidade de São Paulo, Departamento de

Zoologia, Brazil;

Universidade Federal da Paraíba,

Departamento de Zoologia, Brazil

ricrocha@usp.br

The Brazilian Atlantic Forest (AF) is a humid forest forma-

tion located in the Atlantic coast from South to Northeast

Brazil. Biogeographic hypotheses indicate a delimitation

of the AF into 12 Areas of Endemism (AoEs) for harvest-

men. To explore the environmental and historical factors

underlying this pattern, we analyzed the diversity of

harvestmen communities in the AF using a data bank

with 528 species from 56 localities. We also investigated

putative phylogeographic breaks among the AoEs analyz-

ing the mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase I region of taxa

152

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