A new species and the phylogenetic placement of the Neotropical genus Gephyrellula Strand, 1932 (Araneae, Philodromidae)

By

Schinelli, Hector Baruch Pereira
Wanderley do Prado, André
Cerqueira Baptista, Renner Luiz
Takiya, Daniela M.

Type

Article

Date of Publication

2025-4-7

Original Publication

Evolutionary systematics

Volume

9

Series / Issue

Issue: 1

Pages

87--98

Subjects

running crab spiders , South America , systematics , taxonomy

Contributed by

Pensoft Publishers

Language

English

Published by

Hamburg Centrum für Naturkunde (CeNak) 2017-

Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3897/evolsyst.9.143758

 

Abstract

Gephyrellula Strand, 1932 is a genus of small flat pale spiders from the running crab spider family Philodromidae, which currently includes the type-species Gephyrellula violacea (Mello-Leitão, 1918), and the recently described G. lavidabonitaGalvis et al., 2024. The genus has appeared in phylogenetic analyses as a member of the subfamily Philodrominae, but there are conflicting hypotheses regarding its closest relatives. One analysis placed Gephyrellula among the Hawaiian genera Pedinopistha Karsch, 1880 and Pagiopalus Simon, 1900, whereas the other placed it among species of Philodromus Walckenaer, 1826. To further investigate the topic, we conducted new phylogenetic analyses using four molecular markers and including two terminals of Gephyrellula. The resulting trees support the division of the family into two subfamilies Thanatinae and Philodrominae, with Gephyrellula as a member of the latter. Our results place Gephyrellula neither as a member of the Hawaiian clade nor among the genus Philodromus, but instead as a separated lineage. In addition to the phylogenetic analysis, we describe a new species of the genus named Gephyrellula condeubasp. nov., and provide new records of G. violacea, expanding the known distribution of the genus.