Phylogeny of the crevice-weaver spiders (Araneae: Filistatidae)

IVAN LUIZ FIORINI DE MAGALHÃES; MARTÍN JAVIER RAMÍREZ

Christchurch

Congreso; XXI International Congress of Arachnology; 2019

International Society of Arachnology

Filistatids are an ancient family of cribellate spiders, represent one of the first lineages of Araneomorphae, and present a complicated mixture of primitive and apomorphic characters. This makes them a key taxon to elucidate the evolutionary tree of spiders. Its moderate diversity (~ 160 species in 19 genera) is distributed mainly in arid and semi-arid subtropical zones of all continents, except Antarctica. To unveil the phylogenetic relationships among its genera, we assembled a matrix of ~275 morphological characters coded for 75 species of filistatids, and Sanger-sequenced four molecular markers for a similar number of species. The analysis of the data (morphological, molecular, and combined) supports the monophyly of Filistatidae and its two subfamilies, Prithinae and Filistatinae. Several groups of genera are recovered: Filistata and Zaitunia; Sahastata and Kukulcania; all Prithinae except Filistatinella; Antilloides and Filistatoides; a large Old-World group including Pritha, Tricalamus, Afrofilistata, Labahitha, Yardiella, Wandella, and putative new genera; and a South American group formed by Lihuelistata, Pikelinia, and Misionella. The exact positions of the enigmatic Pholcoides and Microfilistata remain unresolved, although they probably are early-branching genera. A new classification for the family based on the phylogenetic results is proposed, including new generic combinations and diagnoses.