Testing the Limits of Morphology: A Comprehensive Morphometric Study of the Sister Lineages Lasiocyano Galleti-Lima, Hamilton, Borges and Guadanucci, 2023 and Lasiodora C. L. Koch, 1850 (Theraphosidae, Mygalomorphae)

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  Testing the Limits of Morphology: A Comprehensive Morphometric Study of the Sister Lineages Lasiocyano Galleti-Lima, Hamilton, Borges and Guadanucci, 2023 and Lasiodora C. L. Koch, 1850 (Theraphosidae, Mygalomorphae) ABSTRACT Morphological conservatism and homoplasy pose significant challenges for the systematics of mygalomorph spiders, limiting the number of reliable morphological characters available for species identification, particularly in Theraphosidae. Closely related taxa frequently display high phenotypic similarity, which limits the resolution of morphology-based approaches. In this study, we conducted the most extensive morphometric analysis to date within Theraphosidae, with the objective of explicitly testing how much morphological information is retained within the  Lasiocyano sazimai  and  Lasiodora  lineage. We applied a morphometric framework combining linear morphometry and geometric morphometry, including multivariate statistics, discrimina...

Male and female crab spiders “cooperate” to mimic a flower

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Male and female crab spiders “cooperate” to mimic a flower

Female crab spiders (Thomisus spp) are able to camouflage themselves as flowers not only to successfully avoid being preyed upon by birds but also to ambush flower-visiting insect prey (Nature 2002; doi.org/10.1038/415133a). This mimicry manipulates flower signals and may vary from species to species. However, do male crab spiders, which are usually much smaller in size and darker in coloration than females, also camouflage themselves in this way?

In a tropical rainforest in Xishuangbanna (Yunnan, China), we observed one male and one female crab spider (Thomisus guangxicus; Thomisidae) in an apparent partnership, to jointly mimic a single Hoya pandurata (Asclepiadaceae) flower. In this image, where the male crab spider lies on the back of the conspecific female, the male appears to mimic a flower's pistils and stamens while the female appears to mimic that same flower's fused corolla. The flower's complex color is matched as a whole only when individual spiders of both sexes are present. This could be an example of “cooperation” that expands the niche of both females and males in mimicry systems, and cooperating individuals may have improved survivorship and predation efficiency. It would also be interesting to investigate the co-evolution between male and female crab spiders.

Wu, M., & Gao, Y. (2024). Male and female crab spiders “cooperate” to mimic a flower. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, 22(2), e2721. https://doi.org/10.1002/fee.2721