CSIRO Publishing Home Books & CDs Journals About Us Shopping Cart
Invertebrate Systematics
  Continuing Invertebrate Taxonomy
You are here: Journals > Invertebrate Systematics   
Search
 
 
  Advanced Search
   
Journal Home
General Information
Scope
Editorial Board
Editorial Contacts
Print Publication Dates
Online Content
For Authors
For Referees
How to Order

 Most Read
Visit our Most Read page regularly to keep up-to-date with the most downloaded papers in this journal.

 Early Alert
Subscribe to our email Early Alert or RSS feeds for the latest journal papers.

 

Increased sampling blurs morphological and molecular species limits: revision of the Hispaniolan endemic spider genus Tainonia (Araneae : Pholcidae)

Bernhard A. Huber A B and Jonas J. Astrin A

A Alexander Koenig Research Museum of Zoology, Adenauerallee 160, 53113 Bonn, Germany.
B Corresponding author. Email: b.huber.zfmk@uni-bonn.de


Abstract

The genus Tainonia comprises unusually large pholcids endemic to Hispaniola. Previously, only the type species had been formally described, represented in collections by no more than 12 adult specimens. However, the existence of more species has been hypothesised based on a few further individuals. The present paper is based on a sample of 205 mostly newly collected adult specimens from 18 localities in the Dominican Republic and four localities in Haiti. The increased sampling reveals a wide range of variation, including intermediate levels of divergence that often blur rather than clarify species limits. Therefore, although not all taxonomic questions can be settled here, morphological (including morphometric) and molecular (mitochondrial 16S, CO1) data strongly support two new species: one in La Visite National Park, Haiti (T. visite, sp. nov.) and another on Samaná Peninsula and parts of the eastern Dominican Republic (T. samana, sp. nov.). Species limits among the other populations are more difficult to support or reject. Specimens from Bayahibe (eastern Dominican Republic) and from La Ciénaga (Cordillera Central) are each assigned species status on the basis of consistent morphological differences (T. bayahibe, sp. nov., T. cienaga, sp. nov.), but no molecular data are available due to lack of specimens. All other specimens are provisionally assigned to a possibly paraphyletic T. serripes (Simon). There is considerable morphological variation within this widely distributed group of populations but this variation is rather continuous and molecular distances fill most of the range between morphologically unambiguous conspecifics and unambiguous heterospecifics.

Keywords: 16S, barcoding, CO1, Dominican Republic, Haiti, morphometrics, taxonomy.

Invertebrate Systematics 23(3) 281–300    doi:10.1071/IS09017
Submitted: 14 March 2009    Accepted: 4 June 2009    Published: 21 July 2009





   
Subscriber Login
Username:
Password:  

 View
Issue Contents
PDF (2.9 MB) $25
Export Citation
 Tools
Print
Email this page
    


 
Top  Email this page
 


Legal & Privacy | Sitemap | Contact Us | Help

CSIRO

© CSIRO 1996-2010