Integrative taxonomy of araneomorph spiders: Breathing new life into an old science

Rivera Quiroz, F.A. (2021)

Doctoral Thesis

Taxonomy as a science has accumulated data and knowledge for more than 250 years. The quality and usefulness of the facts recorded in taxonomic literature has greatly improved from the early descriptive texts to the modern data-rich, hypothesis-driven works. Our work illustrates the application of some of the “e-taxonomic” tools and the “New Taxonomy” thinking explored in the introduction. Here, we analyzed specimen data contained in legacy taxonomic literature in Chapters 2 and 3—to observe species distribution of one spider group and genital evolution, respectively—and also explored an integrative perspective that involves describing new taxa and testing phylogenetic hypotheses using molecular and morphological data, as done in Chapter 4 and 5.

• Spiders
• Taxonomy
• Biodiversity
• Species
• Phylogeny
• DNA
• Molecules
• Selection
• Genitalia
• Evolution

• All authors: Rivera Quiroz, F.A.
• Supervisor: Schilthuizen, M.
• Co-supervisor: Miller, J.A.
• Committee: Wezel, G.P. van; Smets, E.F.; Uhl, G.; Voogd, N.J. de; Riebel, K.; Gravendeel, B.
• Qualification: Doctor (dr.)
• Awarding Institution: Institute of Biology Leiden (IBL), Faculty of Science, Leiden University
• Date: 2021-04-14
• ISBN (print): 9789464231557
• Sponsorship: CONACyT (Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología, México) Becas al extranjero 294543/440613. Three month extension provided by the Understanding Evolution research group and Naturalis Biodiversity Center.