20th International Congress of Arachnology

DENVER MUSEUM OF NATURE & SCIENCE

REPORTS

No. 3, July 2, 2016

International Congress of Arachnology

We constructed proteomic data from crude venom of the

wandering spider

Ctenus hibernalis

using HPLC paired

with LTQ XL ion MS, to determine what venom proteins

are expressed in this species. We found 1,238 proteins

that closely matched the sequences of other venom

proteins of several species of spiders. Our results suggest

that the venom proteins of

C. hibernalis

contain

several proteins with conserved structures similar to

other species. Future work will further characterize the

sequences of the proteins that did not have any matches

within the database in order to further understand the

proteomic makeup of the venom of this species.

Keywords: venom, ctenidae, proteomics

Student - oral presentation

Untangling evolutionary relationships of

widow spiders (

Latrodectus

, Theridiidae,

Araneae):

Latrodectus

phylogeny revisited

*Charmaine E. Condy

1, 2

, Jeremy A. Miller

, Jessica E.

Garb

, Maydianne C. B. Andrade

1, 2

, Nathan R. Lovejoy

1, 2

Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology,

University of Toronto, ON, Canada;

Department of

Biological Sciences, University of Toronto Scarbor-

ough, ON, Canada;

Naturalis Biodiversity Center,

Leiden, The Netherlands;

Department of Biological

Science, University of Massachusetts Lowell, MA, USA

charmaine.condy@mail.utoronto.ca

The widow spiders (

Latrodectus

Walckenaer, 1805) are

feared by the general public due to their neurotoxic

venom and tendency to live near human habitations, but

are valuable models for comparative study.

Latrodectus

species have been the focus of research on venom and

silk evolution, behaviour, ecophysiology, plasticity, and

invasion biology, but comparative studies are challenging

because the group is taxonomically problematic. A previ-

ous phylogenetic analysis based on a single gene and 60%

of the 31 currently recognized species failed to fully resolve

species-level phylogenetic relationships. Here we present a

new analysis utilizing ~200

Latrodectus

specimens from

28 species (90% of valid species), and 20 outgroup taxa,

based on data from two mitochondrial (COI and 16S) and

four nuclear (18S, 28S, H3 and ALTX) genes. Phylogenetic

analyses were completed using Bayesian (MrBayes and

BEAST) approaches. The widow genus,

Latrodectus

, was

recovered as monophyletic (PP=1.0), and we confirm the

previously-identified

mactans

and

geometricus

clades

(PP=1.0). Within the

mactans

clade we recover species

relationships that differ from previous hypotheses. For

example, the clade including the South American widows is

sister to the clade including the Israeli widows, rather than

to the clade of species from North America. In addition,

dahli

(not previously included) is sister to the

mactans

clade in all analyses (PP=1.0). Our results show cryptic

diversity within the widely-distributed western black widows

(

L. hesperus

) and suggest a

L. hesperus

species complex.

This well-supported phylogenetic hypothesis for the genus

is an important new tool for comparative analyses of traits

of interest to applied and fundamental researchers.

Keywords: macroevolution, molecular phylogeny, cryptic

species

Student - oral presentation

Scorpions of the genus

Vaejovis

C. L.

Koch, 1836: the

mexicanus

group, a

morphological phylogeny (Scorpiones:

Vaejovidae)

*Gerardo A. Contreras-Félix, Oscar F. Francke

Colección Nacional de Arácnidos(CNAN), Instituto de

Biología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México

(UNAM), Ciudad de México, México

contrerasfelixga@gmail.com

The genus

Vaejovis

has been on a huge debate over its

diagnosis and the species included in it; since the phy-

logeny proposed from Soleglad and Fet (2008) where

they put in 28 species. Later, González-Santillán and

Prendini (2013) in a revision on the family Syntro-

pinae take several of the traditional species included

in this genus to be included in several of the genera

described in this work; this puts into question the

monophily of the genus

Vaejovis

, the species groups

within and the species included. This analysis, on basis

of morphological information, define the monophyly

of the groups within this genus and characters that

support this hypothesis; it also proves the validity of