Fourteen new species and notes on the genera Amauropelma Raven, Stumkat & Gray, 2001 and Bowie Jäger, 2022 (Arachnida: Araneae: Ctenidae) from Southeast Asia

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  Fourteen new species and notes on the genera Amauropelma Raven, Stumkat & Gray, 2001 and Bowie Jäger, 2022 (Arachnida: Araneae: Ctenidae) from Southeast Asia Abstract Material of the spider family Ctenidae from Southeast Asia is investigated. Ten new species of the genus Amauropelma Raven, Stumkat & Gray, 2001 are described: A. grasshoffi sp. nov. (first record from the Philippines; male), A. kihit sp. nov. (Laos; female), A. kochang sp. nov. (Thailand; female), A. lombok sp. nov. (Indonesia; male, female), A. maimoun sp. nov. (Laos; female), A. phamom sp. nov. (Laos; female), A. penang sp. nov. (Malaysia; male), A. prangphe sp. nov. (Thailand; male, female), A. saiyok sp. nov. (Thailand; female) and A. thammim sp. nov. (Laos; male, female); the male of A. khanense Jäger & Nophaseud, 2024 is described for the first time. New records are listed for A. jagelkii Jäger, 2012 (Laos) and A. mariae Omelko & Fomichev, 2024a (Indonesia). Four new species of the genus Bowie...

Body size and survival of urban and rural populations of a common wolf spider are not influenced by lifelong exposure to lead pollution

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Body size and survival of urban and rural populations of a common wolf spider are not influenced by lifelong exposure to lead pollution

Abstract

Heavy metal pollution is pervasive in urban soils, and it can negatively impact the fitness of arthropods. Arthropod populations can evolve to become more tolerant or resistant to metals, but the mechanisms of these processes are understudied. Here, we tested the hypotheses of fixed adaptation and facultative adaptation in a lead (Pb)-exposure experiment using the progeny of field-collected Pardosa milvina spiders from urban (elevated soil Pb) and rural (background soil Pb) habitats. We predicted that spiders from both populations that were reared in the elevated Pb treatment would exhibit decreased body size in comparison to individuals reared in background Pb soil due to a facultative shift in metabolic investment from growth to Pb resistance, or, alternatively, that urban spiders would exhibit no change in body size across treatments, supporting fixed adaptation as a consequence of a legacy effect of urban Pb pollution. We found no evidence that exposure to elevated Pb soil had an effect on P. milvina's adult body size or survival, regardless of population origin. Our results indicate that the amount of Pb accumulated by the spiders was not sufficient to induce a measurable change in body size, or that there was a fitness cost that was not measured in the experiment, such as changes in fecundity or body condition. Overall, these findings do not provide support for fixed or facultative adaptation to Pb pollution in P. milvina; as such, future studies should investigate other possible tradeoffs, including changes in egg size, body weight, and foraging effort.

Lucy Guarnieri, Leo Taylor, P. Larry Phelan, Mary Margaret Gardiner "Body size and survival of urban and rural populations of a common wolf spider are not influenced by lifelong exposure to lead pollution," Insect Systematics and Diversity, 8(6), 1-8, (5 December 2024) https://doi.org/10.1093/isd/ixae037