Heteroonops (Araneae, Oonopidae) spiders from Hispaniola: the discovery of ten new species

Collection: Pensoft Publishers

Keywords: biodiversity hotspot · Topics: Spider Taxonomy and Behavior Studies, Lepidoptera: Biology and Taxonomy, Scarabaeidae Beetle Taxonomy and Biogeography

The Caribbean biodiversity hotspot harbors vast reserves of undiscovered species. A large-scale inventory of Caribbean arachnids (CarBio) is uncovering new species across the arachnid tree of life, and allowing inference of the evolutionary history that has generated this diversity. Herein we describe ten new species of Heteroonops (Oonopidae, or goblin spiders), from Hispaniola: H. scapula sp. nov., H. jurassicus sp. nov., H. aylinalegreae sp. nov., H. verruca sp. nov., H. renebarbai sp. nov., H. yuma sp. nov., H. carlosviquezi sp. nov., H. gabrielsantosi sp. nov., H. solanllycarreroae sp. nov. and H. constanza sp. nov. The occurrence of the pantropical type species Heteroonops spinimanus (Simon, 1891) is reported and new localities are given for: H. validus (Bryant, 1948), H. vega (Platnick & Dupérré, 2009) and H. castelloides (Platnick & Dupérré, 2009). Molecular phylogenies indicate substantial genetic divergence separating these taxa. This work adds to evidence that the depth of diversity in the Caribbean biodiversity hotspot is particularly striking for tiny taxa living in leaf litter.

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