10.5061/DRYAD.QC3S0
Hedin, Marshal
San Diego State University
Data from: High stakes species delimitation in eyeless cave spiders
(Cicurina, Dictynidae, Araneae) from central Texas
Dryad
dataset
2014
Cicurina
cave species
Araneae
Dictynidae
2014-12-09T18:12:56Z
2014-12-09T18:12:56Z
en
https://doi.org/10.1111/mec.13036
11337592 bytes
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CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication
A remarkable radiation of completely eyeless, cave-obligate spider species
(Cicurina) has been described from limestone caves of Texas. This
radiation includes over 50 described species, with a large number of
hypothesized single-cave endemics, and four species listed as US Federally
Endangered. Because of this conservation importance, species delimitation
in the group is “high stakes” - it is imperative that species hypotheses
are data-rich, objective, and robust. This paper focuses on a complex of
four cave-dwelling Cicurina distributed on the northwestern edge of
Austin, Texas. Several of the existing species hypotheses in this complex
are weak, based on morphological comparisons of small samples of adult
female specimens; one species description (for C. wartoni) is based on a
single adult specimen. Species limits in this group were newly assessed
using morphological, mitochondrial, and nuclear DNA sequence data
evidence, analyzed using a variety of approaches. All data support a clear
lineage separation between C. buwata versus the C. travisae complex
(including C. travisae, C. wartoni, and C. reddelli). Observed congruence
across multiple analyses indicate that the C. travisae complex represents
a single species, and the formal species synonymy presented here has
important conservation implications. The integrative framework utilized in
this study serves as a potential model for other Texas cave Cicurina,
including US Federally Endangered species. More generally, this study
illustrates how and why taxon-focused conservation efforts must prioritize
modern species delimitation research (if the existing taxonomy is weak),
before devoting precious downstream resources to conservation efforts. The
study also highlights the issue of taxonomic type II error that diversity
biologists increasingly face as species delimitation moves into the
genomics era.
Cicurina Nuclear AlignmentsDNA sequence alignments of phased nuclear
dataCic_NucMatrices_Dryad.txtCic_COI_DryadCicurina mitochondrial (COI)
alignmentRAxML and BEAST tre filestre files from RAxML and BEAST analyses,
both nuclear & mitochondrialArchive.zipMorphology Imagesoriginal
JPG files for male/female genital morphologiesMorphologyImages_Archive.zip
Texas