Biogeography and eye size evolution of the ogre-faced spiders.

ABSTRACT: Net-casting spiders (Deinopidae) comprise a charismatic family with an enigmatic evolutionary history. There are 67 described species of deinopids, placed among three genera, Deinopis, Menneus, and Asianopis, that are distributed globally throughout the tropics and subtropics. Deinopis and Asianopis, the ogre-faced spiders, are best known for their giant light-capturing posterior median eyes (PME), whereas Menneus does not have enlarged PMEs. Molecular phylogenetic studies have revealed discordance between morphology and molecular data. We employed a character-rich ultra-conserved element (UCE) dataset and a taxon-rich cytochrome-oxidase I (COI) dataset to reconstruct a genus-level phylogeny of Deinopidae, aiming to investigate the group's historical biogeography, and examine PME size evol

SUBMITTER: Chamberland L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9588044 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature