New World clade
Dimitar Dimitrov
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close boxCharacteristics
The New World clade includes a quite heterogeneous group of pholcid genera; all of them, as the name of the clade indicates, are known from the New World. Spiders in this group also share some morphological synapomorphies such as the exposed tarsal organ, male palpal coxa with a retrolateral apophysis, large distance between the posterior median and the anterior lateral eyes, male gonopore without epiandrous spigots and anterior lateral spigots with only one piriform gland each.
Discussion of Phylogenetic Relationships
The exact limits of this group are still unclear. A fairly large sample of New World genera was included in two phylogenetic studies (Huber, 2000; Bruvo-Madaric at al., 2005) but both failed to find an unambiguous solution for the exact limits of this group and the internal relationships of the included genera. Therefore, “New World clade” is used as an informal name referring to the group of New World pholcid genera found to be more closely related to each other than to the rest of the genera in the family. Addition of more data and expanding the taxon sample may help to answer these questions. Several genera which have some of the New World clade synapomorphies are listed here but their position was not tested in a phylogenetic analysis.
References
Bruvo-Madaric B., Huber B.A., Steinacher A., Pass G. 2005. Phylogeny of pholcid spiders (Araneae:Pholcidae): combined analysis using morphology and molecules. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 37: 661-673.
Huber B.A. 2000. New World pholcid spiders (Araneae: Pholcidae): a revision at generic level. Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist. 254: 1–348.
Title Illustrations
| Scientific Name | Modisimus mango |
|---|---|
| Location | Haiti |
| Specimen Condition | Live Specimen |
| Identified By | Bernhard Huber |
| Sex | Male |
| Life Cycle Stage | Adult |
| Copyright |
© 2007 Bernhard A. Huber
|
About This Page
Dimitar Dimitrov
Zoological Museum, University of Copenhagen
Correspondence regarding this page should be directed to Dimitar Dimitrov at
Page copyright © 2009 Dimitar Dimitrov
Page: Tree of Life
New World clade.
Authored by
Dimitar Dimitrov.
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- First online 12 February 2009
- Content changed 12 February 2009
Citing this page:
Dimitrov, Dimitar. 2009. New World clade. Version 12 February 2009 (under construction). http://tolweb.org/New_World_clade/135149/2009.02.12 in The Tree of Life Web Project, http://tolweb.org/
