Taxonomic And Phylogenetic Studies Of Cheiracanthium From China(Araneae:Cheiracanthiidae)

Cheiracanthium C.L.Koch,1839,currently including 214 species worldwide(42 of which have been reported in China),is the most abundant genus of the family Cheiracanthiidae.Previous studies of Cheiracanthium were mostly limited to the description of new species or regional revisions.So far,no molecular phylogenetic study has been conducted on this group.This dissertation comprehensively studied the fauna of Cheiracanthium from China using both morphological and molecular systematic approaches.For morphology,we examined approximately 1,200 specimens of Chinese Cheiracanthium,and sorted the species by accurate morphological identification,detailed photographing and description.In total,51 species(including 15 new species,three new synonyms,one male new discovery and one female new discovery)of Cheiracanthium from China are described in this dissertation,and five species are listed as nomia dubia in the appendix.Based on the characteristics of genitalia,the species of Cheiracanthium in China are preliminarily divided into nine species groups: brevispinum-group,inflatum-group,insigne-group,insulanum-group,pichoni-group,taiwanicum-group,tengchongense-group,uncinatum-group and zhejiangense-group.Detailed diagnoses are provided for each species group.However,five species are not yet classified into any species group.This dissertation includes 60 plates of habitus and genitalia.For molecular systematics,we selected 37 species of Cheiracanthium(ingroup)and one species of Eutichurus of the family Cheiracanthiidae(outgroup).In total 283 sequences of four gene fragments(mitochondrial genes: cytochrome C oxidase subunit I and 16 S rDNA;nuclear genes: 28 S rDNA and ITS2)were obtained for ML and BI phylogenetic analyses(16 sequences were downloaded from NCBI).The results of phylogenetic analyses based on the dataset of four gene fragments show that all species of Cheiracanthium are clustered into a large clade,but to confirm the monophyly of Cheiracanthium more species of Cheiracanthium and related genera still need to be included in future studies.The results of molecular phylogenetics largely support the morphological classification.The monophyly of the species groups are strongly supported except the insigne-group and uncinatum-group.Different individuals of the same species are clustered together with the exception of C. subinflatum.