- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Bond wears several hats: he is the Evert and Marion Schlinger Endowed Chair, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology; director of the Bohart Museum of Entomology; associate dean, UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences; and president-elect of the American Arachnological Society.
The Bond lab research paper, involving a new genus of California trapdoor spiders, calls attention to not only the diversity of trapdoor spiders in the state, but a new species they named for national civil rights activist Fred Toyosaburo Korematsu, a San Francisco Bay area native who resisted incarceration in the Japanese-American concentration camps during World War II.
The paper, “Microgeographic Population Structuring in a Genus of California Trapdoor Spiders and Discovery of an Enigmatic New Species (Euctenizidae: Promyrmekiaphila korematsui sp. nov.), appears in the journal Ecology and Evolution. The link: https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.10983.
Co-Authors of Paper. Co-authors of the paper with Bond are James Starrett, project scientist; Xavier Zahnle, who recently received his doctorate; doctoral candidate Emma Jochim and doctoral student Iris Quayle.
Trapdoor spiders are so named because they construct their burrows with a corklike or wafer trap door made of soil, vegetation and silk.
“In this study, we generate sub-genomic scale data to investigate phylogenetic relationships and population structure in Promyrmekiaphila and explore deep phylogenetic breaks hypothesized to occur across the genus,” they wrote. “We employ multiple approaches to test species delimitation hypotheses and test for gene flow to assess reproductive isolation in divergent lineages. We measure an array of female somatic morphological characters to evaluate if species diverge morphologically in potential sympatry, as well as in allopatry with divergent ecological niches. Our goal is to address at what point in the speciation process morphologically conserved taxa can be declared cryptic species rather than simply divergent population groups. We describe a new speciesPromyrmekiaphila korematsuisp. nov. Ultimately, we reject dividing the most geographically widespread species,P. clathrata, into multiple species, and instead interpret genetic breaks as deeply structured populations that are not fully reproductively isolated or may have undergone historical gene flow.”
The paper's abstract:
tr“The recognition and delineation of cryptic species remains a perplexing problem in systematics, evolution, and species delimitation. Once recognized as such, cryptic species complexes provide fertile ground for studying genetic divergence within the context of phenotypic and ecological divergence (or lack thereof). Herein we document the discovery of a new cryptic species of trapdoor spider, Promyrmekiaphila korematsui sp. nov. Using subgenomic data obtained via target enrichment, we document the phylogeography of the California endemic genus Promyrmekiaphila and its constituent species, which also includes P. clathrata and P. winnemem. Based on these data we show a pattern of strong geographic structuring among populations but cannot entirely discount recent gene flow among populations that are parapatric, particularly for deeply diverged lineages within P. clathrata. The genetic data, in addition to revealing a new undescribed species, also allude to a pattern of potential phenotypic differentiation where species likely come into close contact. Alternatively, phenotypic cohesion among genetically divergent P. clathrata lineages suggests that some level of gene flow is ongoing or occurred in the recent past. Despite considerable field collection efforts over many years, additional sampling in potential zones of contact for both species and lineages is needed to completely resolve the dynamics of divergence in Promyrmekiaphila at the population–species interface.”
The research drew funding from a National Science Foundation grant and the Evert and Marion Schlinger Foundation.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
He received more than 200 suggestions.
Bond, a noted spider authority and the Evert and Marion Schlinger Endowed Chair in Insect Systematics, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, accepted suggestions from mid-May until 5 p.m., June 1.
His colleague, Joel Ledford, assistant professor of teaching, UC Davis Department of Plant Biology--his research interests include spider systematics and biology education--interviewed Bond May 18 for his Tree of Life-UC Davis YouTube channel. See the episode online.
Bond discovered the new genus of trapdoor spiders on a sandy beach at Moss Landing State Park, Monterey County. Bond proposes to name the genus, Cryptocteniza, part of which means “hidden or secret.”
"There were a few distinct categories of name suggestions," said Bond, who received most through his email but some posted on the YouTube Channel. The categories:
- Native American groups and Native American terms
- Moss Landing derivative names – nouns in apposition associated with the type locality
- Names for celebrities or film characters – a modicum of Harry Potter suggestions as well
- Folks wanting me to name the spider after myself or some other association with the Bond name, related to No. 3
- Most recently names related to George Floyd or other associations with the Black Lives Matter movement.
A virtual open house on spiders, hosted by the Bohart Museum of Entomology, UC Davis, will be broadcast on FacebookLive sometime soon, said Tabatha Yang, education and outreach coordinator. It was initially scheduled for June 8 but postponed.
When it is rescheduled, Bond will discuss spiders, field questions about spiders, and list the top suggestions--perhaps several--for the species. When the final decision is made, the person who named it will be included in Bond's upcoming manuscript on the new genus. Ledford is a co-author.
Trapdoor spiders are so named because they construct their burrows with a corklike or wafer trap door made of soil, vegetation and silk.
Bond discovered the female spider in 1997 on the sandy beach, and figured at the time it might be a new genus. But despite repeated trips to the site, he could not find a male for 22 years. The male proved elusive until pitfall trap sampling in the fall of 2019.
“I have only one male specimen,” Bond told Ledford. He said he will be “relieved” when it is described and finds a home in the Bohart Museum of Entomology, located in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge Building on Crocker Lane. (It is temporarily closed due the coronavirus pandemic precautions.)
“This genus meets the criteria of an endangered living fossil,” Bond said, “and is consequently of grave conservation concern.” He believes the genus is found only in that area, but thinks it may be closely related to a genus found in New Mexico and Arizona. “It is quite plausible that this genus was once likely far more widespread across California and the American Southwest, with potentially greater past species diversity throughout its larger hypothetical ancestral range,” he said.
Of the genus name, Cryptocteniza, Bond says that the adjective “hidden or secret” is prefixed to Cteniza, the Greek feminine noun “comb.” The latter refers to the comb-like rastellum (row of stiff spines on the chelicera) common in taxa and formerly assigned to the spider family Ctenizidae (e.g., Eucteniza). The prefix refers to both the diminutive form of the rastellum and the seemingly “hidden in plain sight” nature of the genus, he says.
It is rare to find a genus in the field, the professor said. The usual place is in museum collections.
The trapdoor spider family Euctenizidae is comprised of some 76 described species in seven genera widely distributed throughout the United States, although a few species are known from Mexico.
Some of the suggestions posted on YouTube:
- Cryptocteniza 007 since it is hidden in plain sight and your name is Bond.
- Cryptoctenzia quartertine: a combination of “quarter” and “quarantine,” since it took you a quarter of a century to find a male specimen, and because of our current Covid experience!
- Cryptoceniza nutella (for the rich dark brown color)
- Cryptocteniza steinbeckii (for one of Monterey County's most famous residents, though apparently John Steinbeck already has a fish named after him)
- Cryptoceniza pairspinster (paired spinster since the male was found after so many years)
- Cryptoceniza Spidey McSpiderface
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
First, the grant:
Jason Bond, professor and the Schlinger Chair in Insect Systematics, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, has received a 4-year, $1.4 million National Science Foundation grant to study trapdoor spiders in the California Floristic Province.
“The idea is to look at the genomic diversity of trapdoor spider populations across the California landscape and identify new species and hotspots of diversity,” said Bond, principal investigator of the collaborative award, shared with Marshal Hedin, professor of biology at San Diego State University (SDSU).
“From a research perspective, this is pretty exciting but it also includes a really nice educational component working with Fran Keller at Folsom Lake College (a UC Davis alumnus),” Bond said. “We have REU (Research Experiences for Undergraduates) funding for students who will be transferring to UC Davis.”
Also working on the grant is co-PI James Starrett, project scientist in the Bond lab.
Trapdoor spiders construct their burrows with a corklike or wafer trap door made of soil, vegetation and silk. They belong to a number of related families placed in the order Araneae, including Euctenizidae and Halonoproctidae.
The researchers also will be using “crowdsourced” data from iNaturalist, involving public sightings of spiders.
The California Floristic Province is a floristic province with a Mediterranean-type climate on the Pacific Coast. In addition to its remarkable spider diversity, this biodiversity hotspot is known for its giant sequoias and coastal redwoods.
“One of the first products from the project will be the description of a new trapdoor spider genus and species from Moss Landing State Beach,” Bond said. Plans call for the public to suggest candidate names for the new species, with the Bohart Museum of Entomology selecting the winner.
The grant is titled “Collaborative Research: Phylogenomics, Spatial Phylogenetics and Conservation Prioritization in Trapdoor Spiders (and Kin) of the California Floristic Province.”
The abstract: “Using a combination of original fieldwork, newly developed analytical methods for genetically identifying species and their evolutionary and geographic relationships, this research project will focus on trapdoor spiders and their relatives as an exemplary group for biodiversity knowledge and conservation in the California Floristic Province (CA-FP). Long-term surveys will be conducted at multiple geographic locations that include most major CA-FP habitat types. At these sites, the presence of spider species and the numbers of individuals in each will be measured to provide a statistical baseline for future monitoring efforts. New large DNA datasets, based on analysis of thousands of genes, will be generated by analysis of the genomes of these species.”
“New methods will be applied to this data to identify species boundaries, and formal taxonomic descriptions will be made for all new species,” according to the abstract. “The new information about these new species and their genetic relationships will be used to assess patterns of biodiversity in this spider group across the complex geography of the CA-FP. Statistical comparisons of the geographic patterns of spider species distribution will be made to CA-FP plants and vertebrates, and these results will be used to determine whether biodiversity hotspots coincide with federal, state, and locally protected areas.”
“This project will train students and other researchers in several techniques of field biology research, producing and analyzing new data from genomes, using cutting edge methods. This research will encourage participation and train a select group of community college students from underrepresented groups who plan to transfer to Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) programs in four-year colleges.”
Bond and colleagues recently published research in the journal Systematic Biology that recognizes eight new spider families—five elevations in rank and three brand new family level rank names, along with one new subfamily. This is in addition to other new families that Bond and Hedin proposed last year. Postdoctoral researcher Vera Opatova of the Bond lab (she recently left for a position in Prague), is the first author on the Systematic Biology paper, "Phylogenetic Systematics and Evolution of the Spider Infraorder Mygalomorphae Using Genomic Scale Data," and Bond is the senior author.
Hedin is the principal investigator of a continuing grant, “Collaborative Research: Phylogenomics, Spatial Phylogenetics and Conservation Prioritization in Trapdoor Spiders (and Kin) of the California Floristic Province,” with co-principal investigator and Jeet Sukemaran, SDSU assistant professor who specializes in computational evolutionary biology.
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