About This Project

Spiders are abundant and very interesting invertebrates, but we lack much to know about their diversity and distribution, especially in North America where it is estimated that only 27% of arachnids have been studied and described. With this research, we seek to study the spiders of the genus Phidippus in North America, under a taxonomic, ecological, and evolutionary approach to evaluate its center of origin, geographic delimitation and divergence rates with parametric biogeography methods.

Ask the Scientists

What is the context of this research?

The spiders of the Salticidae family or also known as jumping spiders, are the family with the largest number of species, and the genus Phidippus has more than 60 species, and most of them are found in North America. These spiders are very charismatic due to their colors and size. This spiders have been studied in morphological and behavioral topics , and there is only one work on their phylogeny, but this was done based on their morphology. We know very well the biology and ecology of these spiders; however, we need to understand their evolutionary history, and for this, it is necessary to obtain dated phylogenies and combine parametric biogeography methods to estimate their center of origin, divergence rates, and phylogenetic diversity of the species in the North. America.

What is the significance of this project?

We know a lot about the ecology and biology of spiders; but, the patterns of distribution, evolution history, and diversification remain controversial. We need more work on comparative analysis of the evolution of spiders, using molecular phylogenies for a better understanding of the evolution of spiders.

The species of Phidippus are an ideal study model to explore this topics in North America, which will help us to learn more about the diversification patterns, evolutionary and historical-biogeographic processes that were the cause of their current distribution. In this sense, it is of great relevance this work, with it, we will have more detailed information about these amazing and charismatic spiders and about the geographic areas for these spiders.

What are the goals of the project?

We have two hypotheses; the first, species of the genus Phidippus are monophyletic, and their most recent common ancestor diverged after the Eocene in North America. The second is, Phidippus species diversified gradually since the Miocene.

To test our hypotheses, we first have to obtain a dated phylogeny; this phylogeny will be obtained with ultraconserved elements; these are regions within the genome that are shared between evolutionarily distant taxa. Once we get the dated phylogeny, we will be able to know which was the center of origin of the genus Phidippus in North America, how and when was its diversification and radiation and what were its evolutionary and historical biogeographic processes that shaped its current distribution.