20th International Congress of Arachnology

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DENVER MUSEUM OF NATURE & SCIENCE REPORTS | No. 3, July 2, 2016
University, 26 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
The spider family Mimetidae, commonly referred to as
“pirate spiders” due to their aggressive mimicry behav-
ior, has world-wide distribution, with the highest species
diversity in Central and tropical South America. Although
Mimetidae were thought to be exclusively araneophagic,
mimetids can be kleptoparasitic on the webs of other
spiders and can also feed upon other arthropods. The family
includes 158 described species and 13 genera. Currently, the
relationships among genera within the family are poorly
understood. To date, phylogenetic analyses have been
limited to morphological characters and outgroup sampling
has lacked many key taxa. Here we present the results of the
first molecular analysis of the family sampling 92 mimetid
terminals and 119 outgroup taxa from 12 families. With
this data set we aimed to (1) test the monophyly of the
family, (2) test the monophyly of mimetid genera, and (3)
examine the relationships among genera. Using data from
six standard molecular markers we estimated the phylogeny
of Mimetidae using parsimony, maximum likelihood, and
Bayesian inference methods. Across analyses our results
show broad consensus for the following relationships:
Gelanor is monophyletic and sister to the rest of the family.
Ero is monophyletic and sister to a lineage that includes
a new genus described elsewhere (previously Mimetus),
Australomimetus and Mimetus. However the placement
of different clades of Mimetus (Neotropical, Indomalayan,
North American, Malagasy) varies under different methods
of analysis with our current mimetid sample. Using the
molecular phylogeny as a guide, we identify potential mor-
phological synapomorphies for all mimetid genera. We also
present new natural history data demonstrating that at least
some mimetids use maternal care for eggs and offspring.
Keywords: Molecular systematics, morphology, pirate
spiders, maternal care
Oral presentation
Documenting diversity: surveying British
Columbia’s spider fauna
Robb Bennett, Claudia Copley, Darren Copley
Royal British Columbia Museum, 675 Belleville Street
Victoria, British Columbia, V8W 9W2, Canada
In 2006, the Royal British Columbia Museum began system-
atically documenting the full diversity of British Columbia’s
spider fauna. Museum specimens and literature records
were used to update an existing checklist and identify poorly
sampled habitats in British Columbia. Annual field surveys
of spiders, primarily targeting alpine and subalpine habitats,
began in 2008 and have resulted in a large number of speci-
mens added to the collection including many new provincial,
national, and Nearctic records as well as numerous unde-
scribed species. Databased spider specimens have increased
from nearly 4300 in 2008 to about 9000 in 2016. Data from
many specimens, however, remain unrecorded and cur-
rently (2016) the museum collection houses approximately
18000 vials estimated to contain over 90000 specimens.
The number of species recorded in British Columbia has
climbed from 570 in 1988 to more than 850. Over 70 of the
new records are Canadian or Nearctic firsts. The progress of
this work has attracted regional, national, and international
attention resulting in donations of important voucher speci-
mens and other spider material; collaborative research with
other scientists on spider ecology, taxonomy, systematics,
and faunistics; and recognition of British Columbia as an
important area of Nearctic spider diversity.
Keywords: collections, curation, alpine, Beringia,
collaboration
Oral presentation
Changes in mating system with the evolution
of sociality leads to depleted genomic diver-
sity at both population and species level
Trine Bilde 1, Virginia Settepani1 , Mads F. Schou1,
Michelle Greve2 , Lena Grinsted3 , Jesper Bechsgaard1
1Department of Bioscience, Aarhus University, Ny
Munkegade 116, building 1540, 8000 Aarhus C,
Denmark; 2Department of Plant Science, University of
Pretoria, Private Bag X20, Hatfield 0028, South Africa;
3School of Life Sciences, University of Sussex, John
Maynard Smith Building, Brighton BN1 9QG, UK
20th International Congress of Arachnology