163 / 232
Chiricahua Mountains of Arizona in July of 2015. Our nine
participants included primarily graduate students and pro-
fessionals from the United States and Canada. As a result
of the collections made during the course, we completed a
revision of the spider species of the Chiricahua Mountains
area reported by Jung and Roth (1974). Familial represen-
tation in the local fauna is summarized herein.
Keywords: education, field course, species lists, southwest
Oral presentation
Spiderling interactions on the group web:
social tyranny rules in
Agelenopsis aperta
!
Susan Riechert
1
, Jonathan Pruitt
2
, Jennifer Bosco
1
1
Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, Uni-
versity of Tennessee, Knoxville TN 37996-1610, USA;
2
Ecology, Evolution & Marine Biology Department,
University of California at Santa Barbara, Santa
Barbara CA 93106-5131, USA
riechert@UTK.eduInvestigation of between sib and non sib pairs of
Agele-
nopsis
spiderlings of same mass over 6 weekly feeding
periods in which each individual is offered a termite
prey at its funnel entrance indicates that this species
does not cooperate in prey capture at this age. Further,
2/3 of the over 2000 pairs exhibited agonistic interac-
tions over prey as opposed to feeding independently
on the termite offered each one. The degree to which
prey are contested differs among families indicating
that there is a genetic basis to agonistic behavior.
Once a distinct winner occurs in an interaction, this
individual takes prey and/or keeps the other member
of the pair from feeding. This is despite the fact that 1
termite is far more than an individual can consume.
The result is that there will be a marked dichotomy
in individual size that increases through time.This
behavior may be adaptive in that it assures that some
members of a family will be larger and more competi-
tive over web-sites and resources following dispersal
from the group web. Analyses completed thus far indi-
cate that spiderlings do not discriminate between sibs
and non sibs.
Keywords: spiderlings, feeding contests, behavior
Oral presentation
Next-generation systematics of Austral-
asian idiopid trapdoor spiders: exploring
a continental radiation
Michael G. Rix
1,2,3
, Mark S. Harvey
3
, Steven J. B. Cooper
2,4
,
Sophie E. Harrison
2
, Andrew D. Austin
2
1
Queensland Museum, P.O. Box 3300, South Bris-
bane, Queensland 4101, Australia;
2
The University
of Adelaide, North Terrace, Adelaide, South Australia
5005, Australia;
3
Western Australian Museum, Locked
Bag 49, Welshpool DC, Western Australia 6986,
Australia;
4
South Australian Museum, North Terrace,
Adelaide, South Australia 5005, Australia
michael.rix@qm.qld.gov.auNext-generation sequencing (NGS) approaches have revo-
lutionized systematic arachnology, providing new markers,
more characters and, once optimised, faster methods for
data generation. Our understanding of the phylogeny
and classification of mygalomorph spiders has benefitted
from recent advances in molecular systematics, although
many studies using Sanger sequencing methods remain
limited by the number of loci available and the informa-
tion content of those loci. Here we present a comprehensive
phylogeny of the trapdoor spiders of the family Idiopidae
in Australasia. Using massively parallel RNA-Seq methods
for the development of new informative nuclear loci, and
parallel tagged amplicon sequencing methods for the
generation of a 12-gene dataset, we tested the phylogeny,
generic classification and biogeography of Idiopidae
across continental Australia. Resulting trees highlight the
mesic Gondwanan heritage of Idiopidae in Australia, and
provide evidence for three independent xeric radiations. In
one of these arid-adapted genera, remarkable phragmotic
abdominal modifications analogous to those seen in
Cyclo-
cosmia
(Ctenizidae) and African
Galeosoma
(Idiopidae)
have evolved twice in parallel in Western Australia. This
phylogenetic framework provides the quantitative founda-
tion for a new generic-level classification of the arbanitine
Idiopidae, and for future species-level monography. Fur-
thermore, new nuclear markers–developed and optimised
for both Sanger and NGS sequencing platforms–offer great
potential for the molecular analysis of Mygalomorphae
162
DENVER MUSEUM OF NATURE & SCIENCE
REPORTS
|
No. 3, July 2, 2016
Cushing