20th International Congress of Arachnology

179

DENVER MUSEUM OF NATURE & SCIENCE

REPORTS

No. 3, July 2, 2016

nests, soil composition where the nests were found, and

ambient temperature and humidity. Morphological studies

of 35

Liphistius

specimens (17

♀

, 18

♂

) revealed that

the genital characteristics of both sexes are distinct from

other previously described

Liphistius

species, prompting

us to describe it as a new species. Unfortunately, this newly

discovered species may already be in danger as a result of

disturbance and deforestation that would be caused by a

dam planned for Mae Wong National Park.

Keywords:

Liphistius

, Asia, new species, conservation

Poster presentation

Geographic structure and gene flow in

a range-expanding communal spider,

Cyrtophora citricola

(Araneidae) in Israel

Deborah Smith

, Yong-Chao Su

, Yael Lubin

Dept. Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, University of

Kansas, Lawrence, KS 66045, USA;

Blaustein Institutes

for Desert Research, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev,

Sede Boqer Campus, Midreshet Ben-Gurion 84990, Israel

debsmith@ku.edu

The communal spider

Cyrtophora citricola

(Forsskål,

1775) is known historically from Europe, Africa, the

Middle East and Asia, and from several recently colonized

locations in the Americas. In Israel,

C. citricola

has been

known from the Jordan Valley, the Negev desert and the

Arava. Recently, the distribution of

C. citricola

in Israel

has expanded. Anecdotally, new populations appear to

be associated with increased agricultural activity. Here

we address regional patterns of genetic variation within

Israel. We collected

C. citricola

from the rift valley (Lake

Kinneret, Northern Jordan Valley and the Arava Valley),

and the western, northern, central and eastern Negev. We

carried out multiplexed shotgun genotyping of 279 indi-

viduals to detect single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs)

and used 3164 unlinked SNPs in Fst analyses. We found

low Fst values (0.02 to 0.05) among western, northern

and central Negev populations, indicating high gene flow

among them and/or very recent common ancestry. Since

citricola

were not present there in the recent past, we favor

the second hypothesis - recent colonization from the same

source population. The source is likely to be the eastern

Negev and the Arava; Fst values between these two popula-

tions and the north, central and western Negev populations

are higher (0.06 to 0.12), but still indicate substantial gene

flow, especially between the Arava and eastern, central and

northern Negev. Rift valley populations maintain substan-

tial levels of gene flow (Fst values of 0.06 to 0.11), despite

being widely separated. The Arava site seems to be an

important hub connecting the rift valley populations to the

Negev populations. In future work we will also use SNPs

data in STRUCTURE analyses, and to investigate colony

structure and sex-biased dispersal in this species.

Student - oral presentation

An unexpected journey: The evolution and

biogeography of New Zealand Idiopidae

*Victoria R. Smith

, Cor J. Vink

, Emily D. Fountain

Rob Cruickshank

, Adrian M. Paterson

Department of Ecology, Lincoln University, Lincoln

7647, Christchurch, New Zealand;

Canterbury

Museum, Rolleston Avenue, Christchurch 8013, New

Zealand;

University of Wisconsin-Madison, Depart-

ment of Forest and Wildlife Ecology, 1630 Linden

Drive, Madison, WI 53706-1598, USA

vikki.smith@lincolnuni.ac.nz

Most of New Zealand was underwater in the late Oligo-

cene (27–22 million years ago). When the waters began to

subside and more emergent land became available, it

was colonised by a variety of biota. The origins of most New

Zealand lineages can be traced back to nearby continents,

such as Australia. However, evidence suggests that a few have

been associated with New Zealand and its supercontinent,

Zealandia, since the breakup of Gondwana. New Zealand’s

endemic trapdoor spider genus,

Cantuaria

(Idiopidae), is

one such candidate for a history of Gondwanan vicariance.

Cantuaria

appears dispersal limited and surprisingly spe-

ciose. We set out to use dated phylogenies, phylogeographic

analysis, and ecological data to infer the history of

Cantu-

aria

in New Zealand. Were

Cantuaria

in New Zealand since

Zealandia split from Australia 80 million years ago, or

did they more recently undertake an unexpected journey?

Keywords: phylogeography, dispersal, vicariance,

Australasia, diversity, genetics, Bayesian analysis

International Congress of Arachnology