Integrative taxonomic revision of the woodlouse-hunter spider genus Dysdera (Araneae: Dysderidae) in the Madeira archipelago with notes on its conservation status

Dysdera is a highly speciose genus of mid-sized, nocturnal hunting spiders, mostly circumscribed to the Mediterranean. The genus managed to colonize all Macaronesian archipelagos, and underwent major diversification in the Canary Islands. Here, we report on an independent diversification event on the Madeira archipelago. Based on the integration of morphological and molecular evidence, we describe 8 new species to science, Dysdera dissimilis sp. nov., Dysdera exigua sp. nov., Dysdera isambertoi sp. nov., Dysdera precaria sp. nov., Dysdera recondita sp. nov., Dysdera sandrae sp. nov., Dysdera teixeirai sp. nov., Dysdera titanica sp. nov. and redescribe Dysdera coiffaiti, Dysdera diversa and Dysdera portisancti. We synonymize Dysdera longibulbis and Dysdera vandeli under D. coiffaiti and D. diversa, respectively. Additionally, we use a multilocus target gene phylogeny to support a single colonization event of the archipelago followed by in situ diversification. We further discuss the discovered diversity patterns and their drivers. We conclude to that many of the species inhabit disturbed or fragile habitats and should be considered of high conservation concern.

Diversification events and the effects of mass extinctions on Crocodyliformes evolutionary history

The rich fossil record of Crocodyliformes shows a much greater diversity in the past than today in terms of morphological disparity and occupation of niches. We conducted topology-based analyses seeking diversification shifts along the evolutionary history of the group. Our results support previous studies, indicating an initial radiation of the group following the Triassic/Jurassic mass extinction, here assumed to be related to the diversification of terrestrial protosuchians, marine thalattosuchians and semi-aquatic lineages within Neosuchia. During the Cretaceous, notosuchians embodied a second diversification event in terrestrial habitats and eusuchian lineages started diversifying before the end of the Mesozoic. Our results also support previous arguments for a minor impact of the Cretaceous/Palaeogene mass extinction on the evolutionary history of the group. This argument is not only based on the information from the fossil record, which shows basal groups surviving the mass extinction and the decline of other Mesozoic lineages before the event, but also by the diversification event encompassing only the alligatoroids in the earliest period after the extinction. Our results also indicate that, instead of a continuous process through time, Crocodyliformes diversification was patchy, with events restricted to specific subgroups in particular environments and time intervals.

A revision of the Neogene Cancellariid Gastropods of the Paratethys Sea

We present the first synoptic revision of the cancellariid gastropods of the Miocene Paratethys Sea. This huge epicontiental sea experienced outstanding phases of invasions and endemic evolution, which resulted in a total diversity of at least 53 cancellariid species. The maximum diversity of 43 species was established during the early Middle Miocene (Langhian), corresponding to the mid-Miocene Climatic Optimum. This speciation and diversification event is suspected to be potentially still traceable in molecular clock analysis and should be considered in future investigations. The turn-over rate at species level was considerable, resulting in short species longevity. Most species were already extinct by Pliocene times and only a single species seems to have survived until the Early Pleistocene. None of these Miocene Paratethyan cancellariid species survive today in modern circum–Mediterranean assemblages. Extant species referred to the Miocene Admetinae genus Cancellicula are clearly not congeneric and have to be placed in a separate genus.Steiningeriella nov. gen. is described as new genus and Ovilia breitenbergerorum nov. sp. as new species. Petitina nov. nom. is introduced as replacement name for the preoccupied Inermia. New combinations are: Bonellitia hoernesi (Kittl, 1887) nov. comb., Pseudobabylonella nysti (Hörnes, 1854) nov. comb., Calcarata vindobonensis (Hilber, 1892) nov. comb., Contortia callosa (Hörnes, 1854) nov. comb., Contortia fenestrata (Eichwald, 1830) nov. comb., Contortia saccoi Hoernes & Auinger, 1890 nov. comb., Contortia tortoniana (Sacco, 1894) nov. comb., Merica crenata (Hörnes, 1856) nov. comb., Merica succineiformis (Boettger, 1906) nov. comb., Ovilia excassidea (Sacco, 1894) nov. comb., Petitina inermis (Pusch, 1837) nov. comb., Petitina angulata (Sieber, 1936) nov. comb., Perplicaria mioquadrata (Sacco, 1894) nov. comb., Scalptia dertocosticillata (Sacco, 1894) nov. comb., Scalptia dertoparva (Sacco, 1894) nov. comb., Scalptia polonica (Pusch, 1837) nov. comb., Scalptia michelinii (Bellardi, 1841) nov. comb., Scalptia neugeboreni (Hörnes, 1856) nov. comb., Scalptia scrobiculata (Hörnes, 1854) nov. comb., Solatia exwestiana (Sacco, 1894) nov. comb., Steiningeriella hebertiana (Hörnes, 1856) nov. comb. and Trigonostoma exampullaceum (Sacco, 1894) nov. comb.

Temporal lags and overlap in the diversification of weevils and flowering plants

The extraordinary diversity of herbivorous beetles is usually attributed to coevolution with angiosperms. However, the degree and nature of contemporaneity in beetle and angiosperm diversification remain unclear. Here we present a large-scale molecular phylogeny for weevils (herbivorous beetles in the superfamily Curculionoidea), one of the most diverse lineages of insects, based on ≈8 kilobases of DNA sequence data from a worldwide sample including all families and subfamilies. Estimated divergence times derived from the combined molecular and fossil data indicate diversification into most families occurred on gymnosperms in the Jurassic, beginning ≈166 Ma. Subsequent colonization of early crown-group angiosperms occurred during the Early Cretaceous, but this alone evidently did not lead to an immediate and major diversification event in weevils. Comparative trends in weevil diversification and angiosperm dominance reveal that massive diversification began in the mid-Cretaceous (ca.112.0 to 93.5 Ma), when angiosperms first rose to widespread floristic dominance. These and other evidence suggest a deep and complex history of coevolution between weevils and angiosperms, including codiversification, resource tracking, and sequential evolution.