Taxonomy and systematic phylogenetic of the neotropical spider genus Acanthoctenus Keyserling, 1877 (Acanthocteninae, Cteninae, Araneae)

• Grant number: 17/17363-0
• Support type: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Effective date (Start): September 01, 2017
• Effective date (End): November 30, 2019
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Zoology - Taxonomy of Recent Groups
• Principal Investigator: Daniele Polotow Geraldo
• Grantee: Stephany Arizala Cobo
• Home Institution: Instituto de Biologia (IB). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 15/22000-8 - Taxonomy and systematic of Acanthoctenidae (Ctenidae, Araneae) and cybertaxonomy applied to the arachnid collection (Arachnida) of Museu de Zoologia da Universidade Estadual de Campinas, AP.JP
• Associated scholarship(s): 18/22762-3 - Total evidence analysis of the phylogenetic relationships of the neotropical genus Acanthoctenus Keyserling, 1877 (Acanthocteninae, Ctenidae, Araneae), BE.EP.MS

Abstract

The goal of this project is to investigate the taxonomy and systematic phylogenetic of Acanthoctenus (Acanthocteninae, Ctenidae, Araneae). The genus currently contains 10 species described, with Neotropical distribution. It is composed by large sized spiders (between 8 eand 20 mm of total body lenght), nocturnal and they do not produce webs to capture the prey. The genus can be diagnosed by the presence of a scopulae of quimiosenssitive hairs in the male palp and by the elongated copulatory opening of the female epigynum. Morphological characters are going to be used to construct a data matrix with all the species of the genus. The outgroup is going to be represented by the other genera of Acanthocteninae (Nothroctenus e Viracucha), and several other genera from the remaining subfamilies of Ctenidae. (AU)