A global biogeographic history of the ogre-faced spider Deinopis

An ongoing debate in biogeography centers around the relative importance of dispersal and vicariance in the evolutionary history of the terrestrial world’s biota. Especially interesting are old lineages that do not readily cross oceanic barriers, for these may reflect ancient and more recent geological events at global and local scales. Here we present a biogeographical analysis of Deinopis, a circumtropical spider genus that provides a test of the importance of vicariance versus dispersal during the ancient breakup of Gondwana and the formation of present-day Caribbean islands. We utilized four molecular markers (COI, 18S, 28S and H3) and estimated dated phylogenetic hypotheses using Bayesian Inference and Maximum Likelihood. We employed two calibration points utilizing a fossil Deinopidae from the Lebanese amber deposit and clade ages determined in prior empirical studies. Finally, we reconstructed possible ancestral areas using maximum likelihood methods. We found much deeper phylogenetic structure than is captured by current taxonomy and thus report results without species names. We reconstruct an two monophyletic sister clades of Deinopis representing the old and new world taxa. The biogeographic reconstruction suggests that the evolution of Deinopis reflects vicariant geologic events over approximately 150 million years. Future work will focus on revising the taxonomy of this genus of spiders and in better understanding global historical biogeography.