Phylogeny and historical biogeography of the genus Acanthoscurria (Araneae: Theraphosidae)

• Grant number: 17/00051-5
• Support type: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Effective date (Start): April 01, 2017
• Effective date (End): February 28, 2019
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Genetics - Animal Genetics
• Cooperation agreement: Coordination of Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES)
• Principal Investigator: Vera Nisaka Solferini
• Grantee: João Claudio de Sousa Nascimento
• Home Institution: Instituto de Biologia (IB). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The Neotropical region supports one of the largest biodiversity in the world, distributed across large numbers of biomes. To understand how past events affected the biomes and the local biodiversity is one of the main challenges facing Neotropical biogeography. Despite their large diversity in this region, spiders have been scarcely used in this type of study. The genus of Mygamomorphae spiders Acanthoscurria (Araneae: Theraphosidae) contains 27 species with a broad distribution accross to number of Neotropical biomes. This project will perform the phylogenetic analysis of this genus through the sequencing of nuclear sequences, H3 and ITS2, and the mitochondrial COI. The time of divergence of the species is going to be estimated. The data of the current geographic distribution of the species will be used to estimate the likely area of occurrence of the ancestral lineages of this group. The collection of this data will allow the testing of hypotheses of how tertiary and quaternary events influenced the diversification of this genus. (AU)