Christian Kropf

The use of unique DNA sequences as a method for taxonomic identification is no longer fundamentally controversial, even though debate continues on the best markers, methods, and technology to use. Although both existing databanks such as GenBank and BOLD, as well as reference taxonomies, are imperfect, in best case scenarios “barcodes” (whether single or multiple, organelle or nuclear, loci) clearly are an increasingly fast and inexpensive method of identification, especially as compared to manual identification of unknowns by increasingly rare expert taxonomists. Because most species on Earth are undescribed, a complete reference database at the species level is impractical in the near term. The question therefore arises whether unidentified species can, using DNA barcodes, be accurately assigned to more inclusive groups such as genera and families—taxonomic ranks of putatively monophyletic groups for which the global inventory is more complete and stable. We used a carefully chose...

The oonopid genera Gamasomorpha and Xestaspis are very diverse and differ only by the shape of the booklung covers.New Indian/Indonesian Gamasomorpha and Xestaspis species, characterized by sternal furrows consisting of large, drop-like pits are described. Fourteen species are newly described (G. asterobothros n. sp., G. keri n. sp., G. petoteca n. sp., G.insomnia n. sp., G. ophiria n. sp., G. squalens n. sp., G. coniacris n. sp., G. raya n. sp., G. fricki n. sp., G. schmilingi n. sp.,X. kandy n. sp., X. paulina n. sp., X. semengoh n. sp., X. biflocci n. sp.); two species are redescribed (G. seximpressa andG. taprobanica). The high significance of somatic features for species identification, the degree of intraspecific variationand the complexity of the female genitalia are remarkable. The current work suggests that a phylogenetic revision of thegenera Gamasomorpha and Xestaspis and an examination of the validity of the shape of the booklung covers of these two genera are needed.

The genus Ischnothyreus Simon, 1893 from Java and Sumatra is revised with the description of seven new species from Java (I. baltenspergerae sp. nov., I. bauri sp. nov., I. gigeri sp. nov., I. ligulatus sp. nov., I. nentwigorum sp. nov., I. sigridae sp. nov., I. ujungkulon sp. nov) and eight from Sumatra (I. ascifer sp. nov., I. concavus sp. nov., I. habeggeri sp. nov., I. haymozi sp. nov., I. lucidus sp. nov., I. marggii sp. nov., I. microphthalmus sp. nov., I. obscurus sp. nov.). Furthermore the male of I. serpentinum Saaristo, 2001 is described for the first time and the female redescribed in detail. Special morphological features of Ischnothyreus males and females are described and discussed, such as peculiar trochanter projections, partially fused pedipalp segments, processes on the cheliceral fang base in males and external and internal genitalic structures in females. This work is part of the Planetary Biodiversity Inventory (PBI) of goblin spiders (h<a href="http://research.amnh.org/oonopidae/">ttp://research.amnh.org/oonopidae/).</a>.

The use of unique DNA sequences as a method for taxonomic identification is no longer fundamentally controversial, even though debate continues on the best markers, methods, and technology to use. Although both existing databanks such as GenBank and BOLD, as well as reference taxonomies, are imperfect, in best case scenarios "barcodes" (whether single or multiple, organelle or nuclear, loci) clearly are an increasingly fast and inexpensive method of identification, especially as compared to manual identification of unknowns by increasingly rare expert taxonomists. Because most species on Earth are undescribed, a complete reference database at the species level is impractical in the near term. The question therefore arises whether unidentified species can, using DNA barcodes, be accurately assigned to more inclusive groups such as genera and families-taxonomic ranks of putatively monophyletic groups for which the global inventory is more complete and stable. We used a caref...

The integration of independent data sets could solve problems in both traditional and DNA-based taxonomy. The aim of this study is to investigate the power of CO1 sequences and of morphometrics to distinguish closely related species in the spider genus Araniella. We put special emphasis on the species pair A. cucurbitina (Clerck, 1757) and A. opisthographa (Kulczyński, 1905) since the females are morphologically difficult to distinguish and often misidentified. A total of 216 sequences of eight Araniella species from seven European countries, North America and Asia were included in the molecular analysis. The results from both maximum likelihood and Bayesian phylogenetic inference indicate successful separation of six out of eight Araniella species, including A. cucurbitina and A. opisthographa. For the same six species, we detect no overlap of intra- and interspecific genetic divergence, leading to successful species identification with a threshold approach. In addition, morphometric analysis of the epigyna of A. cucurbitina and A. opisthographa supports species separation by two best explanatory ratios: receptaculum length and distance between receptaculum and copulatory duct. Although a small overlap in the ratios exists, the species identification rate increases when combining morphometric and molecular data, which demonstrates the efficiency of integrative approaches for distinguishing closely related species. However, none of the molecular approaches was able to separate closely related A. alpica (L. Koch, 1869) and A. inconspicua (Simon, 1874) due to shared CO1 haplotypes. Considering the clear morphological separation of the males and different habitat preferences, incomplete lineage sorting or introgressive hybridization could have led to identical CO1 sequences. Therefore, DNA-barcoding must be thoroughly tested even within small homogenous genera of spiders.

ABSTRACT First record of Maro lehtineni Saaristo, 1971 (Arachnida, Araneae) in Switzerland. — The spider genus Maro O. P.-Cambridge, 1906 is represented by only 4 species in Central Europe. All represen-tatives of this genus are very small and most of them not easy to identify. Thaler (1983) recorded M. lehtineni Saaristo, 1971 for the first time in the Austrian Alps. Due to some small differences in the morphological structure of the male palpus there were some doubts about the identification. The pre-sence of several males and one female of M. lehtineni Saaristo, 1971 in Switzerland (Grisons, Sur, Alp Flix) ensures the occurrence of this species in the Alps. The here presented detail drawings and photographs show subtle differences and give supplementary information to the first description of this species by Saaristo (1971).

ABSTRACT 3 Natural History Museum Basel, Abteilung Biowissenschaften, Augustinergasse 2, CH-4001 Basel 4 Correspondence to Christian Kropf: christian.kropf@nmbe.unibe.ch Spiders of the timberline on Alp Flix (Switzerland, Canton Grisons, 1960 m) were collected between June 2002 and May 2004 around and on stand-alone Norway spruce trees (Picea abies) by means of pitfall traps, funnel traps, frame and litter sampling, branch eclectors, restricted canopy fogging, beat-ing, sweep netting and hand sampling. 93 species were recorded, four of them endemic to the Alps and another six to the European mountain system. Five species are new to the Canton Grisons: Evansia merens, Meioneta innotabilis, Moebelia penicillata, Obscuriphantes obscurus and Agroeca proxima. Most species can be classified as forest or open-land dwellers that contribute equally to species diversity, only few are generalists. 13 % of the species (27 % of the individuals) are winter-active. It is shown that stand-alone trees at the alpine timberline offer a broad range of habitats for a high number of spider species. This should be considered in future conservation and research efforts. Phenologies of certain species are included.

ABSTRACT Frick, H., Nentwig, W. & Kropf, C. 2007: Influence of stand-alone trees on epigeic spiders (Ara-neae) at the alpine timberline. — Ann. Zool. Fennici 44: 43–57. We studied community composition and activity densities of spiders around stand-alone Norway spruce at the alpine timberline with respect to three interrelated param-eters: (1) relative distance from tree trunk, (2) branch-, and (3) vegetation cover. Pitfall traps were positioned in an inner distance range (close to tree trunk), a median, and an outer distance range (at the outer limit of branch cover). Community composition: Linyphiid species numbers increased significantly towards the tree trunks where the branch cover was high, whereas lycosid and gnaphosid species numbers increased towards the edge where branch cover was low. Activity densities: 11 out of 14 species were significantly correlated with the relative distance to the tree trunk, ten with the branch cover, and two with vegetation cover. Open-land species preferred the outer distance range and forest species the inner distance range. Caracladus avicula is prob-ably a habitat specialist of the alpine timberline.

... 3012 Bern, Switzerland, and Natural History Museum Bern, Department of Invertebrates, Bernastrasse 15, CH-3005 Bern, Switzerland Christian Kropf* Natural ... et al., 1997), development and survival (Li, 2002; Li & Jackson, 1996), copulation duration (Costa & Sotelo, 1984) and ...

... Genau diese Lücke füllt das Buch „Spider families of the world“, verfasst von Rudy Jocqué und Ansie Dippenaar-Schoeman, zwei führenden ... Wie lange haben wir auf eine Übersicht der Spinnenfamilien weltweit gewartet und wie kompetent und benutzerfreund-lich liegt sie nun ...

... covering 13 of the 20 described genera (Appendix 1). Only species for which we could obtain sequences from all four molecular markers were included ... Polymerase chain reactions (PCR) were carried out in 20 μL final volumes using Promega GoTaq Flexi DNA Polymerase kits. ...

Genital morphology is often used as a key character for distinguishing species in many arthropod groups. Regarding scorpions, male genitalia (hemispermatophores) have been increasingly used in species descriptions. In the present study we analyse hemispermatophores of four Central European species of Euscorpius Thorell, 1876, and those of Euscorpius flavicaudis (De Geer, 1778) from southern France. The main focus are the three morphologically cryptic species, Euscorpius alpha Caporiacco, 1950, Euscorpius germanus (C.L. Koch, 1837), and Euscorpius gamma Caporiacco, 1950. The clear, deep split between E. alpha and E. germanus previously shown from nuclear allozyme data and mitochondrial genetic markers is not found in hemispermatophore and other morphological characters. Even the hemispermatophore of E. gamma—a species branching off at the same genetic distance level as E. alpha and E. germanus, and clearly diagnosable on external morphological characters—is indistinguishable from those of E. alpha and E. germanus. Although hemispermatophores are complex, they are not more informative than other morphological characters. Euscorpius hemispermatophores may be useful for species discrimination, but in closely related species they are of limited taxonomic value.

Background The diversification of organisms with a parasitic lifestyle is often tightly linked to the evolution of their host associations. If a tight host association exists, closely related species tend to attack closely related hosts; host associations are less stable if associations are determined by more plastic traits like parasitoid searching and oviposition behaviour. The pupal-parasitoids of the genus Ichneumon attack a variety of macrolepidopteran hosts. They are either monophagous or polyphagous, and therefore offer a promissing system to investigate the evolution of host associations. Ichneumon was previously divided into two groups based on general body shape; however, a stout shape has been suggested as an adaptation to buried host pupation sites, and might thus not represent a reliable phylogenetic character. Results We here reconstruct the first molecular phylogeny of the genus Ichneumon using two mitochondrial (CO1 and NADH1) and one nuclear marker (28S). The result...

The new genus Aposphragisma (Araneae, Oonopidae, Oonopinae) comprising the new species A. baltenspergerae, A. borgulai, A. brunomanseri, A. confluens, A. dayak, A. dentatum, A. draconigenum, A. hausammannae, A. helvetiorum, A. kolleri, A. menzi, A. monoceros, A. nocturnum, A. retifer, A. rimba, A. salewskii, A. scimitar, A. sepilok and A. stannum is described. It is characterised by very hard bodied, strongly sclerotized species with completely armoured prosoma and strongly sclerotized ventral and dorsal abdominal scuta. Aposphragisma gen. nov. is placed within the Gamasomorpha-group sensu Saaristo (2001). Descriptions and illustrations are given for all new species. A phylogenetic analysis based on 40 characters using Prethopalpus fosuma, Gamasomorpha asterobothros, G. cataphracta, G. seximpressa, Xestaspis biflocci, X. kandy and X. paulina as outgroup-taxa and Cortestina thaleri (Oonopidae, Sulsulinae) as the root is presented and discussed. Furthermore it is shown that females of Aposphragisma gen. nov. possess complex internal genitalia. The members of the new genus are ground-dwelling litter inhabitants restricted to Southeast Asian lowland and montane forests, with more than 60% of the species only known from single localities. They are presumed to be negatively affected by the massive destruction of pristine forest habitats within their range. This work has been conducted within the framework of the Planetary Biodiversity Inventory (PBI) of Oonopidae (see http://research.amnh.org/oonopidae).

Mating plugs occluding the female gonopore after mating are a widespread phenomenon. In scorpions, two main types of mating plugs are found: sclerotized mating plugs being parts of the spermatophore that break off during mating, and gel-like mating plugs being gelatinous fluids that harden in the female genital tract. In this study, the gel-like mating plug of Euscorpius italicus was investigated with respect to its composition, fine structure, and changes over time. Sperm forms the major component of the mating plug, a phenomenon previously unknown in arachnids. Three parts of the mating plug can be distinguished. The part facing the outside of the female (outer part) contains sperm packages containing inactive spermatozoa. In this state, sperm is transferred. In the median part, the sperm packages get uncoiled to single spermatozoa. In the inner part, free sperm is embedded in a large amount of secretions. Fresh mating plugs are soft gelatinous, later they harden from outside toward inside. This process is completed after 3-5 days. Sperm from artificially triggered spermatophores could be activated by immersion in insect Ringer's solution indicating that the fluid condition in the females' genital tract or females' secretions causes sperm activation. Because of the male origin of the mating plug, it has likely evolved under sperm competition or sexual conflict. As females refused to remate irrespective of the presence or absence of a mating plug, females may have changed their mating behavior in the course of evolution from polyandry to monandry.