Zoological Institute, Technische Universität Braunschweig, Mendelssohnstr. 4, 38106 Braunschweig, Germany.
Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management, University of California Berkeley, 130 Mulford Hall #3114, Berkeley, CA 94720-3114, USA.
Mol Phylogenet Evol. 2018 Feb;119:63-70. doi: 10.1016/j.ympev.2017.10.015. Epub 2017 Nov 2.
The mygalomorph spiders in the family Theraphosidae, also known as "tarantulas", are one of the most popular and diverse groups of arachnids, but their evolutionary history remains poorly understood because morphological analyses have only provided mostly controversial results, and a broad molecular perspective has been lacking until now. In this study we provide a preliminary molecular phylogenetic hypothesis of relationships among theraphosid subfamilies, based on 3.5 kbp of three nuclear and three mitochondrial markers, for 52 taxa representing 10 of the 11 commonly accepted subfamilies. Our analysis confirms the monophyly of the Theraphosidae and of most recognized theraphosid subfamilies, supports the validity of the Stromatopelminae and Poecilotheriinae, and indicates paraphyly of the Schismatothelinae. The placement of representatives of Schismatothelinae also indicates possible non-monophyly of Aviculariinae and supports the distinction of the previously contentious subfamily Psalmopoeinae. Major clades typically corresponded to taxa occurring in the same biogeographic region, with two of them each occurring in Africa, South America and Asia. Because relationships among these major clades were poorly supported, more extensive molecular data sets are required to test the hypothesis of independent colonization and multiple dispersal events among these continents.
捕鸟蛛科（Theraphosidae）的狼蛛，也被称为“塔兰图拉毒蛛”，是最受欢迎和最多样化的蛛形纲动物之一，但它们的进化历史仍知之甚少，因为形态分析只提供了大多有争议的结果，而且直到现在还缺乏广泛的分子视角。在这项研究中，我们根据三个核和三个线粒体标记物的 3.5 kbp，为代表 11 个通常被接受的亚科中的 10 个的 52 个分类单元，提供了捕鸟蛛科亚科之间关系的初步分子系统发育假说。我们的分析证实了捕鸟蛛科和大多数公认的捕鸟蛛科亚科的单系性，支持 Stromatopelminae 和 Poecilotheriinae 的有效性，并表明 Schismatothelinae 的并系性。Schismatothelinae 代表的位置也表明 Aviculariinae 可能不是单系的，并支持先前有争议的 Psalmopoeinae 的区别。主要分支通常与出现在同一生物地理区域的分类单元相对应，其中两个分支分别出现在非洲、南美洲和亚洲。由于这些主要分支之间的关系支持度较低，需要更广泛的分子数据集来检验这些大陆之间独立殖民和多次扩散事件的假说。
