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...

Two new species of the spider wasps genus Morochares Banks, 1934 (Hymenoptera: Pompilidae) from China

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Two new species of the spider wasps genus Morochares Banks, 1934 (Hymenoptera: Pompilidae) from China

Abstract

Morochares storozhenkoi Loktionov, sp. nov. and M. liuxi Loktionov, sp. nov. are described and illustrated from Guangdong, China. These are the seventh and eighth known species of the genus, and the sixth and seventh from China. An updated key to the Chinese species is given.

Loktionov, V.M. (2025) Two new species of the spider wasps genus Morochares Banks, 1934 (Hymenoptera: Pompilidae) from China. Zootaxa, 5715 (1), 244–250. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5715.1.22