Skip to main content Skip to main navigation menu Skip to site footer
Type: Article
Published: 2019-10-24
Page range: 519–534
Abstract views: 96
PDF downloaded: 2

A new species of Aphonopelma (Araneae: Mygalomorphae: Theraphosidae) from the Madrean pine-oak woodlands of northeastern Sonora, Mexico

Department of Biology, Millsaps College, 1701 North State Street, Jackson, Mississippi, 39210 USA
Araneae biodiversity hotspot DNA barcoding integrative taxonomy Madrean Sky Islands Sierra de Bacadéhuachi Sierra Madre Occidental tarantula

Abstract

The tarantula spider genus Aphonopelma Pocock, 1901 has received considerable attention in recent years but the group’s diversity remains poorly understood in Mexico, particularly in the pine-oak woodlands of the Sierra Madre Occidental and associated Madrean “Sky Islands”. A pair of tarantulas discovered from an unsampled region in the Sierra de Bacadéhuachi (the westernmost range of the Sierra Madre Occidental) in northeastern Sonora was found to be closely related to four species from the Madrean “Sky Islands” in Arizona and New Mexico. An integrative approach for delimiting species (incorporating data from molecular phylogenetics, morphology, distributions, and breeding periods) suggests that the specimens from Sierra de Bacadéhuachi belong to an undescribed species that is herein named Aphonopelma bacadehuachi sp. nov. This new species adds to our knowledge of an increasingly diverse assemblage of Aphonopelma from the Madrean Pine-Oak Woodlands Hotspot. Collaborations between Mexican and American researchers are needed to accelerate discovery and description of the group’s remaining diversity, particularly in light of the many threats facing the ecoregion including habitat degradation and climate change.

 

References

  1. Bond, J.E. (2004) Systematics of the Californian euctenizine spider genus Apomastus (Araneae: Mygalomorphae: Cyrtaucheniidae): the relationship between molecular and morphological taxonomy. Invertebrate Systematics, 18, 361–376.

    https://doi.org/10.1071/IS04008

    Bond, J.E. & Stockman, A.K. (2008) An integrative method for delimiting cohesion species: finding the population-species interface in a group of Californian trapdoor spiders with extreme genetic divergence and geographic structuring. Systematic Biology, 57, 628–646.

    https://doi.org/10.1080/10635150802302443

    Brusca, R.C., Wiens, J.F., Meyer, W.M., Eble, J., Franklin, K., Overpeck, J.T. & Moore, W. (2013) Dramatic response to climate change in the Southwest: Robert Whittaker’s 1963 Arizona Mountain plant transect revisited. Ecology and Evolution, 3, 3307–3319.

    https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.720

    Candia-Ramírez, D.T. & Francke, O.F. (2017) Taxonomic revision of the genus Crassicrus Reichling & West, 1996 (Araneae: Theraphosidae: Theraphosinae), with the description of additional keels on the embolus. Journal of Arachnology, 45, 67–98.

    https://doi.org/10.1636/JoA-S-16-005.1

    Coe, S.J., Finch, D.M. & Friggens, M.M. (2012) An assessment of climate change and the vulnerability of wildlife in the Sky Islands of the Southwest. General Technical Report RMRS-GTR-271. United States Department of Agriculture/Forest Service.

    https://doi.org/10.2737/RMRS-GTR-273

    Estrada-Alvarez, J.C. (2014) Nuevos datos de arañas migalomorfas (Araneae: Mygalomorphae) del Estado de México, con comentarios taxonómicos del género Davus O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1892. Dugesiana, 21, 55–66.

    Estrada-Alvarez, J.C., Guadarrama R., C.A. & Martínez O., M. (2013) Nueva especie de Citharacanthus Pocock, 1901 (Theraphosidae: Theraphosinae) para México. Dugesiana, 20, 63–66.

    Estrada-Alvarez, J.C. & Locht, A. (2011) Descripción de Bonnetina aviae sp. n. de México (Araneae: Theraphosidae: Theraphosinae). Boletín de la Sociedad Entomológica Aragonesa, 48, 151–155.

    Gabriel, R. (2016) Revised taxonomic placement of the species in the Central American genera Davus O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1892, Metriopelma Becker, 1878, and Schizopelma F. O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1897, with comments on species in related genera (Araneae: Theraphosidae). Arachnology, 17, 61–92.

    https://doi.org/10.13156/arac.2006.17.2.61

    García-Villafuerte, M.Á. & Locht, A. (2010) Una nueva especie de Hemirrhagus Simon, 1903 (Theraphosidae: Theraphosinae) de Chiapas, México. Revista Ibérica de Aracnología, 18, 81–86.

    Graham, M.R., Hendrixson, B.E., Hamilton, C.A. & Bond, J.E. (2015) Miocene extensional tectonics explain ancient patterns of diversification among turret-building tarantulas (Aphonopelma mojave group) in the Mojave and Sonoran deserts. Journal of Biogeography, 42, 1052–1065.

    https://doi.org/10.1111/jbi.12494

    Hamilton, C.A., Formanowicz, D.R. & Bond, J.E. (2011) Species delimitation and phylogeography of Aphonopelma hentzi (Araneae, Mygalomorphae, Theraphosidae): cryptic diversity in North American tarantulas. PLOS ONE, 6, e26207.

    https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0026207

    Hamilton, C.A., Hendrixson, B.E. & Bond, J.E. (2016) Taxonomic revision of the tarantula genus Aphonopelma Pocock, 1901 (Araneae, Mygalomorphae, Theraphosidae) within the United States. ZooKeys, 560, 1–340.

    https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.560.6264

    Hamilton, C.A., Hendrixson, B.E., Brewer, M.S. & Bond, J.E. (2014) An evaluation of sampling effects on multiple DNA barcoding methods leads to an intergrative approach for delimiting species: a case study of the North American tarantula genus Aphonopelma (Araneae, Mygalomorphae, Theraphosidae). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 71, 79–93.

    https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ympev.2013.11.007

    Hendrixson, B.E., DeRussy, B.M., Hamilton, C.A. & Bond, J.E. (2013) An exploration of species boundaries in turret-building tarantulas of the Mojave Desert (Araneae, Mygalomorphae, Theraphosidae, Aphonopelma). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 66, 327–340.

    https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ympev.2012.10.004

    Hendrixson, B.E., Guice, A.V. & Bond, J.E. (2015) Integrative species delimitation and conservation of tarantulas (Araneae, Mygalomorphae, Theraphosidae) from a North American biodiversity hotspot. Insect Conservation and Diversity, 8, 120–131.

    https://doi.org/10.1111/icad.12089

    Hoang, D.T., Chernomor, O., von Haeseler, A., Minh, B.Q. & Vinh, L.S. (2018) UFBoot2: improving the ultrafast bootstrap approximation. Molecular Biology and Evolution, 35, 518–522.

    https://doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msx281

    Kalyaanamoorthy, S., Minh, B.Q., Wong, T.K.F., von Haeseler, A. & Jermiin, L.S. (2017) ModelFinder: fast model selection for accurate phylogenetic estimates. Nature Methods, 14, 587–589.

    https://doi.org/10.1038/nmeth.4285

    Koprowski, J.L., Doumas, S.L., Merrick, M.J., Oleson, B., Posthumus, E.E., Jessen, T.G. & Gwinn, R.N. (2013) It’s lonely at the top: biodiversity at risk to loss from climate change. In: Gottfried, G.J., Ffolliott, P.F., Gebow, B.S., Eskew, L.G. & Collins, L.C. (Eds.), Merging Science and Management in a Rapidly Changing World: Biodiversity and Management of the Madrean Archipelago III. United States Department of Agriculture/Forest Service, Fort Collins, Colorado, pp. 53–59.

    Kumar, S., Stecher, G., Li, M. Knyaz, C. & Tamura, K. (2018) MEGA X: molecular evolutionary genetics analysis across computing platforms. Molecular Biology and Evolution, 35, 1547–1549.

    https://doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msy096

    Locht, A., Medina, F., Rojo, R. & Vázquez, I. (2005) Una nueva especie de tarántula del género Aphonopelma Pocock 1901 (Araneae, Theraphosidae, Theraphosinae) de México con notas sobre el género Brachypelma Simon 1891. Boletín de la Sociedad Entomológica Aragonesa, 37, 105–108.

    Maddison, W.P. & Maddison, D.R. (2018) Mesquite: a modular system for evolutionary analysis, ver. 3.6. Available from: http://www.mesquiteproject.org (accessed 16 March 2019)

    Longhorn, S.J. & Gabriel, R. (2019) Revised taxonomic status of some Mexican and Central American tarantulas (Araneae: Theraphosidae), with transfers from Aphonopelma Pocock, 1901, and a new genus from the Pacific lowlands of Nicaragua and Costa Rica. Arachnology, 18, 101–120.

    https://doi.org/10.13156/arac.2018.18.2.101

    Mendoza, J.I. & Francke, O.F. (2017) Systematic revision of Brachypelma red-kneed tarantulas (Araneae: Theraphosidae), and the use of DNA barcodes to assist in the identification and conservation of CITES-listed species. Invertebrate Systematics, 31, 157–179.

    https://doi.org/10.1071/IS16023

    Mendoza, J.I. & Francke, O.F. (2018) Five new cave-dwelling species of Hemirrhagus Simon 1903 (Araneae, Theraphosidae, Theraphosinae), with notes on the generic distribution and novel morphological features. Zootaxa, 4407 (4), 451–482. httpx://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4407.4.1

    Mendoza, J.I., Locht, A., Kaderka, R., Medina, F. & Pérez-Miles, F. (2016) A new genus of Theraphosid spider from Mexico, with a particular palpal bulb structure (Araneae, Theraphosidae, Theraphosinae). European Journal of Taxonomy, 232, 1–28. https://doi.org/10.5852/ejt.2016.232

    Mendoza-Marroquín, J.I. (2012a) Bonnetina papalutlensis a new species of tarantula from Guerrero, Mexico, with notes on reproduction (Araneae, Theraphosidae, Theraphosinae). Revista Ibérica de Aracnología, 20, 57–62.

    Mendoza-Marroquín, J.I. (2012b) Cotztetlana omiltemi, a new genus and species of tarantula from Guerrero, México (Araneae, Theraphosidae, Theraphosinae). Arthropoda Scientia, 2, 2–7.

    Mendoza-Marroquín, J.I. (2014a) Taxonomic revision of Hemirrhagus Simon, 1903 (Araneae: Theraphosidae, Theraphosinae), with description of five new species from Mexico. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 170, 634–689.

    https://doi.org/10.1111/zoj.12112

    Mendoza-Marroquín, J.I. (2014b) Psalmopoeus victori, the first arboreal theraphosid spider described for Mexico (Araneae: Theraphosidae: Aviculariinae). Revista Mexicana de Biodiversidad, 85, 728–735.

    https://doi.org/10.7550/rmb.44597

    Mittermeier, R.A., Gil, P.R., Hoffmann, M., Pilgrim, J., Brooks, T., Mittermeier, C.G., Lamoreux, J. & Da Fonseca, G.A.B. (2004) Hotspots Revisited. CEMEX, Mexico City, 390 pp.

    Nguyen, L.-T., Schmidt, H.A., von Haeseler, A. & Minh, B.Q. (2015) IQ-TREE: a fast and effective stochastic algorithm for estimating maximum likelihood phylogenies. Molecular Biology and Evolution, 32, 268–274.

    https://doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msu300

    Ortiz, D. & Francke, O.F. (2015) Two new species of Bonnetina tarantulas (Theraphosidae: Theraphosinae) from Mexico: contributions to morphological nomenclature and molecular characterization of types. Journal of Natural History, 49, 685–707. https://doi.org/10.1080/00222933.2014.924770

    Ortiz, D. & Francke, O.F. (2016) Two DNA barcodes and morphology for multi-method species delimitation in Bonnetina tarantulas (Araneae: Theraphosidae). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 101, 176–193.

    https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ympev.2016.05.003

    Ortiz, D. & Francke, O.F. (2017) Reconciling morphological and molecular systematics in tarantulas (Araneae: Theraphosidae): revision of the Mexican endemic genus Bonnetina. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 180, 819–886.

    https://doi.org/10.1093/zoolinnean/zlw013

    Prentice, T.R. (1997) Theraphosidae of the Mojave Desert west and north of the Colorado River (Araneae, Mygalomorphae, Theraphosidae). Journal of Arachnology, 25, 137–176.

    Puillandre, N., Lambert, A., Brouillet, S. & Achaz, G. (2012) ABGD: Automatic Barcode Gap Discovery for primary species delimitation. Molecular Ecology, 21, 1864–1877.

    https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-294X.2011.05239.x

    Satler, J.D., Carsten, B.C. & Hedin, M. (2013) Multilocus species delimitation in a complex of morphologically conserved trapdoor spiders (Mygalomorphae, Antrodiaetidae, Aliatypus). Systematic Biology, 62, 805–823.

    https://doi.org/10.1093/sysbio/syt041

    Schmidt, G. (2012) Bonnetina (Pachytheca) tanzeri subgen. et sp. n., eine bisher unbeschriebene Vogelspinnenart aus Mexiko (Araneae: Theraphosidae: Theraphosinae). Arthropoda Scientia, 2, 21–28.

    Sherwood, D. (2019) Aphonopelma braunhausenii Tesmoingt, 1996 is a nomen dubium, with review of some historic morphological characters ineffective at species delineation (Araneae: Theraphosidae). Zootaxa, 4657 (3), 573–580.

    https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4657.3.9

    Smith, A.M. (1995) Tarantula Spiders: Tarantulas of the U.S.A. and Mexico. Fitzgerald Publishing, London, 196 pp.

    Struchen, R., Brändle, D. & Schmidt, G. (1996) Eine seltsame Aphonopelma-Art aus Mexiko, Aphonopelma bicoloratum sp. n. (Araneida: Theraphosidae: Theraphosinae). Arachnologisches Magazin, 4, 1–8.

    Tesmoingt, M. (1996) Une nouvelle espece d’Aphonopelma du Mexique: description et contribution à l’etude taxonomique de Aphonopelma braunshausenii sp. n. (Araneae, Theraphosidae, Theraphosinae). Arachnides, 31, 2–7.

    Trifinopoulos, J., Nguyen, L.-T., von Haeseler, A. & Minh, B.Q. (2016) W-IQ-TREE: a fast online phylogenetic tool for maximum likelihood analysis. Nucleic Acids Research, 44, W232–W235.

    https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkw256

    Turner, S.P., Longhorn, S.J., Hamilton, C.A., Gabriel, R., Pérez-Miles, F. & Vogler, A.P. (2018) Re-evaluating conservation priorities of New World tarantulas (Araneae: Theraphosidae) in a molecular framework indicated non-monophyly of the genera, Aphonopelma and Brachypelma. Systematics and Biodiversity, 16, 89–107.

    https://doi.org/10.1080/14772000.2017.1346719

    Wilson, J.S., Gunnell, C.F., Wahl, D.B. & Pitts, J.P. (2013) Testing the species limits of the tarantulas (Araneae: Theraphosidae) endemic to California’s Southern Coast Ranges, USA. Insect Conservation and Diversity, 6, 365–371.

    https://doi.org/10.1111/icad.12000

    World Spider Catalog (2019) World Spider Catalog. Version 20.0. Natural History Museum, Bern, Available from: https://wsc.nmbe.ch (accessed 7 September 2019)