An Overlooked Species of Enigmatic Wolf Spider (Araneae: Lycosidae) Clarifies the Mysterious Distribution of its Sibling

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  An Overlooked Species of Enigmatic Wolf Spider (Araneae: Lycosidae) Clarifies the Mysterious Distribution of its Sibling Abstract Several wolf spiders exhibit a peculiar geographical distribution. One good example of this is Pardosa aenigmatica Tongiorgi, 1966, recently recognized in Italy and the Middle East but missing in the Balkans. A comparison of populations from the disjunctive areas revealed that they would be better described as two distinct species. As a result, here we describe Pardosa sepidehae sp. nov. The paper includes detailed descriptions and comparative illustrations of male and female copulatory organs for the newly discovered species and P. aenigmatica. Pardosa sepidehae sp. nov. is distributed in the Middle East, whereas P. aenigmatica remains endemic to the Apennine Peninsula. Adile Akpinar, Petr Dolejš "An Overlooked Species of Enigmatic Wolf Spider (Araneae: Lycosidae) Clarifies the Mysterious Distribution of its Sibling," Annales Zoologici, 76(29), ...

Examining ecological niche for six species of whip spider in Colombia

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Examining ecological niche for six species of whip spider in Colombia 

Abstract

The conditioning variables for the establishment of Amblypygi populations and their ecological interactions are currently poorly studied. Delving deeper into this can help to conserve this group of short-range distribution species, which are useful as a model in biogeographic research. In this study, we evaluated the distribution and overlapping patterns of ecological niche in six species of amblypygids (Phrynus araya, P. panche, P. pulchripes, Heterophrynus batesii, H. boterorum, H. cervinus) in the Andean and Amazonian ecosystems of Colombia, revealing a clear biogeographic segregation driven by environmental gradients: Phrynus species were associated with inter-Andean valleys with high thermal and water seasonality.  While the Heterophrynus occupied more stable and humid conditions of foothills and middle elevations. Overlap analyses showed significant divergence (e.g., D=0.105 between P. panche and H. batesii), with high unfilling values (up to 73.2%), indicating limited niche overlap and habitat specialization, although historical coexistence was detected in certain pairs of species (e.g., 99.1% stability between H. cervinus and H. boterorum). In the future, the integration of ecological niche modeling (ENM) with phylogeographic and behavioral approaches will be crucial for identifying niche partitioning mechanisms and optimizing conservation strategies for endemic taxa in complex tropical landscapes.

Vasquez-Palacios, S., & Chirivi-Joya, D. A. (2026). Examining ecological niche for six species of whip spider in Colombia . Biogeographia – The Journal of Integrative Biogeography, 41(2). http://dx.doi.org/10.21426/B6.61687 Retrieved from https://escholarship.org/uc/item/4p02p73c