Systematics And Integrative Taxonomy Of Ctenizidae Trapdoor Spiders (Araneae:Mygalomorphae), From Southeast And East Asian

The family Ctenizidae belongs to the order Araneae,the suborder Opisthothelae and the infraorder Mygalomorphae.Ctenizidae is a less diverse,underground-living lineage.They are mostly distributed in Asia(China,Burma,India,Japan,Laos,Sumatra,Vietnam),the Americas(North and South America),the Mediterranean and South Africa and Australia.Ctenizidae contains nine genera,and 130 described species,and there are five genus(Bothriocyrtum,Conothele,Cteniza,Cyclocosmia,Latouchia)and 32 species distributed in Asia.Ctenizids are distributed not only in the mainlands but also on the islands of the continental shelf,such as China's Hainan Island and Taiwan Island,Kyushu and the Ryukyu islands of Japan.Their sedentary,slow and cryptic life history may preclude their colonization ability,making them poor dispersers.Due to their antiquity,high level of endemism,disjunct distribution,and poor dispersal ability,ctenizids are important for the study of spider tree of life,including insights of spider origin and evolutionary history,as well as for testing biogeographic hypotheses as they relate to plate tectonics,dispersal routes,and physical barriers to speciation.However,most of studies have primarily focused on taxonomy,morphology-based phylogeny,but studies on ctenizid molecular phylogeny are scares with focus on American and the Mediterranean taxa.Moreover,a few studies on ctenizid molecular phylogeny have mainly concentrated on family-level or above,but little is known about their phylogeny of genus-level or below.Furthermore,no study has been carried out to investigate the phylogeny of Asian ctenizids.Traditionally,arachnologists identify spider species based on morphological characters of spider genitals.There are extremely intraspecific variations in female epigynum,but less variation in male palpal organs.In addition,it is difficult to collect adult males.These make morphology-based taxonomy of ctenizids very difficult.Therefore,molecular phylogenetical and molecular genetic data complement to reliable morphology-based taxonomy are needed.The over all aim of the thesis is therefore to use molecular data to explore the phylogenetic relationships and to clarify the systematics of Asian ctenizids with a focus on three genera,Conothele,Cyclocosmia and Latouchia.Specifically I aimed to:(1)provide the first species level phylogeny of Asian ctenizids using original molecular data,and there by testing the monophyly of the family and genera Conothele,Cyclocosmia and Latouchia;and(2)integrate the molecular phylogeny,genetic data and morphological characters to complete a taxonomic revision of Asian species from the genus Latouchia.A total of 176 individuals of ctenizids were collected from 57 localities in East and Southeast Asia and the two genes,a mitochondrial gene(cytochrome c oxidase subunit I,COI)and one nuclear locus(28s rRNA),were sequenced.Using maximum likelihood(ML)and Bayesian inference(BI)analyses to reconstruct relationships between three ctenizid genera and test the monophyly of these genera.The extensive field work over their present distribution range in East and Southeast Asia discovered numerous new localities and species and,albeit emphasizing Latouchia,secured a taxon sample needed for the first comprehensive species level phylogeny of East and Southeast Asia ctenizids.This phylogeny strongly supported the monophyly of the family Ctenizidae andthe genera Conothele,Cyclocosmia and Latouchia.To solve the taxonomy of Asian Latouchia species,I conducted four different molecular species identification method(DNA barcoding gap,species delimitation plugin PID(Liberal),automatic discovery of barcoding gap discovery(ABGD),generalized mixed Yule-coalescent model(GMYC)based on the single-locus COI.My results showed that DNA bar coding,P ID(Liberal)and ABGD agree with morphology,while GMYC under-or over estimates species.I used the consensus results to delimit and diagnose 16 species:three known species(L.cornuta Song,Qiu&Zheng,1983,L.formosensis Kayashima,1943,L.formosensis smithi Tso,Haupt&Zhu,2003)and 13 new species(L.bacillaris sp.nov.,L.baiyunensis sp.nov.,L.bawangensis sp.nov.,L.bijiaensis sp.nov.,L.chongzuoensis sp.nov.,L.danxiaensis sp.nov.,L.iheya sp.nov.,L.jianfengensis sp.nov.,L.meizhouensis sp.nov.,L.tudatus sp.nov.,L.wangjiangensis sp.nov.,L.wuzhiensis sp.nov.,L.zhangqiuensis sp.nov.).These results demonstrated that even single-locus analyses based on COI barcode,if integrated with morphological and geographical data,provide sufficiently reliable species delimitation for sessile and range restricted spiders.Finally,using phylogeny,molecular,morphological and geographical data,I identified and diagnosed four species of Cyclocosmia(a known species:C.latusicosta Zhu,Zhang&Zhang,2006,and three new species:C.cipingensis sp.nov.,C.hangzhouensis sp.nov.,C.tongrenensis sp.nov.)and four new species of Conothele(C.baiyunensis sp.nov.,C.chongzuoensis sp.nov.,C.sidiechongensis sp.nov.,C.yundingensis sp.nov.).In summary,this thesis provides the first molecular phylogeny of three East and Southeast Asian ctenizid genera and thus supports current three genera.The results also indicate that single-locus analyses based on COI barcode,if integrated with morphological and geographical data,is sufficiently reliable for species delimitation for these sessile and range restricted spiders.