Abstract
In order to resolve better the deep relationships among salticid spiders, we compiled and analyzed a molecular dataset of 169 salticid taxa (and 7 outgroups) and 8 gene regions. This dataset adds many new taxa to previous analyses, especially among the non-salticoid salticids, as well as two new genes – wingless and myosin heavy chain. Both of these genes, and especially the better sampled wingless, confirm many of the relationships indicated by other genes. The cocalodines are placed as sister to lapsiines, in a broader clade with the spartaeines. Cocalodines, lapsiines, and spartaeines are each supported as monophyletic, though the first two have no known morphological synapomorphies. The lyssomanines appear to be non-monophyletic, of three separate groups: (1) Lyssomanes plus Chinoscopus, (2) Onomastus, and (3) the remainder of Old World species. Several previously-inferred relationships continue to be supported: hisponines as sister to the Salticoida, Amycoida as sister to the remaining Salticoida, and Saltafresia as monophyletic. The relationship of Salticus with Philaeus and relatives is now considered well enough corroborated to move the latter into the subfamily Salticinae. A new clade consisting of the Plexippoida + Aelurilloida + Leptorchesteae + Salticinae is recognized. Nungia is found to be an astioid, and Echeclus, Gedea and Diplocanthopoda to be hasariines. The euophryines are corroborated as monophyletic. The agoriines Agorius and Synagelides are salticoids, within the sister group to amycoids, but their further placement is problematical, perhaps because of their nuclear ribosomal genes’ high GC bias, as also seen in the similarly problematic Eupoa.
Highlights
Salticid spiders, remarkable for their excellent vision (Land 1969, Blest et al 1990), include more than 5000 species (Platnick 2014) with a great diversity of body forms and behaviours
Excluded are sequences of Hispo cf. frenata, because its limited data made it unstable in the analyses, “Portia labiata” from Su et al (2007), because its identification is in doubt and no voucher specimen is available, and the actin 5C sequence of Tomomingi sp. voucher d243, which we discovered to have been a contaminant from the euophryine Ilargus
Two small single-nucleotide errors in the sequences were corrected after the analyses but before submission to Genbank. These are near the ends of CO1 of MRB199 (Gelotia sp. [Guangxi]) and MRB231 (Eburneana sp. [Gabon])
Summary
Remarkable for their excellent vision (Land 1969, Blest et al 1990), include more than 5000 species (Platnick 2014) with a great diversity of body forms and behaviours While this diversity has long resisted phylogenetic organization, recent molecular studies (Maddison and Hedin 2003, Su et al 2007, Maddison et al 2008, Bodner and Maddison 2012, Zhang and Maddison 2013), aided by compilations of morphological taxonomic knowledge (Prószyński 2013) have resolved much of the phylogenetic structure of the family. Outside the Salticoida are the spartaeines, lyssomanines, and hisponines, showing ancestral features like limited tracheal systems, complex palpi, and the retention of a tarsal claw on the female palp These non-salticoids (often called “basal salticids”) have been studied phylogenetically (Su et al 2007), but with limited taxon sampling. By building a dataset that has a greater number of genes among selected species, we hoped to obtain a phylogenetic resolution with stronger confidence
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