Efrat Gavish-Regev

• Doctor of Philosophy
• Scientific Collection Manager, Arachnida & other terrestrial arthropods at Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Male secondary genitalia (pedipalps) are useful characters for species discrimination in most spider families. Although efforts have been made to establish pedipalp sclerite homologies, there are still many inconsistencies in their use. The majority of the morphological characters used to reconstruct the linyphiid phylogeny address male genitalic v...

Caves possess a continuum of ecological zones that differ in their microhabitat conditions, resulting in a gradient of nutrients, climate, and illumination. These conditions engender relatively rapid speciation and diverse assemblages of highly specialised spider fauna. It is unclear, however, how zonation of these caves affects spider assemblage c...

Simple Summary Deserts are characterized by unpredictable precipitation, extreme temperatures, and plants and animals that are specialized to live in these habitats. Consequently, desert organisms often recover slowly, if at all, from human-induced environmental disasters. We studied the effects of two nearby oil spills from a broken pipeline, one...

Caves share unique conditions that have led to convergent adaptations of cave-dwelling animals. In addition, local factors act as filters on regional species-pools to shape the assemblage composition of local caves. Surveys of 35 Levantine caves, distributed along a climate gradient from the mesic in the north of Israel to hyper-arid areas in the s...

In order to integrate parasitoid wasps in agroecosystems as biological control agents, we need to understand how insecticides affect the parasitoids in the crops and their surroundings. We investigated the non-target effect of Indoxacarb, an insecticide commonly used against European grapevine moth, on parasitoid wasp communities in vineyards. We f...

Background Relatively little is known about the diversity of embryonic development across lineages of spiders, even though the study of embryonic development is a primary step in evo-devo studies and essential for understanding phenotypic evolution. Practically nothing is known about embryogenesis in cave-dwelling spiders, animals which play an imp...

Litter decomposition is expected to be positively associated with precipitation despite evidence that decomposers of varying sizes have different moisture dependencies. We hypothesized that higher tolerance of macro-decomposers to aridity may counterbalance the effect of smaller decomposers, leading to similar decomposition rates across climatic gr...

Chelicerata constitutes an ancient, biodiverse, and ecologically significant group of Arthropoda. The study of chelicerate evolution has undergone a renaissance in the past decade, resulting in major changes to our understanding of the higher-level phylogeny and internal relationships of living orders. Included among these conceptual advances are t...

Groundwater ecosystems are inhabited by unique assemblages of animals, often with restricted distributions and highly specialized traits. Those assemblages sustain ecosystem functioning and contribute to important ecosystem services. Knowledge of the species occurring in those habitats and the main ecological and historical drivers for their distri...

Local microgeographic sites subdivided by sharp ecological and climatic contrasts are important platforms for measuring biodiversity patterns and inferring the possible effect of climatic and ecological variables on species distributions and habitat use. Here, we report results from 24 months (September 2019–August 2021) of continuous pitfall trapp...

Asymmetrical rates of cladogenesis and extinction abound in the Tree of Life, resulting in numerous minute clades that are dwarfed by larger sister groups. Such taxa are commonly regarded as phylogenetic relicts or "living fossils" when they exhibit an ancient first appearance in the fossil record and prolonged external morphological stasis, partic...

Litter decomposition is expected to be positively associated with precipitation despite evidence that decomposers of varying sizes have different moisture dependencies. We hypothesized that higher tolerance of macro-decomposers to aridity may counterbalance the effect of smaller decomposers, leading to similar decomposition rates across climatic gr...

Litter decomposition is expected to be positively associated with precipitation despite evidence that decomposers of varying sizes have different moisture dependencies. We hypothesized that higher tolerance of macro-decomposers to aridity may counterbalance the effect of smaller decomposers, leading to similar decomposition rates across climatic gr...

Vestigial organs provide a link between ancient and modern traits and therefore have great potential to resolve the phylogeny of contentious fossils that bear features not seen in extant species. Here we show that extant daddy-longlegs (Arachnida, Opiliones), a group once thought to possess only one pair of eyes, in fact additionally retain a pair...

An observation of phoresy by pseudoscorpions on a scorpion host is recorded for the first time worldwide. Pseudoscorpions of the endemic species Nannowithius wahrmani (Beier, 1963) (Pseudoscorpiones: Withiidae) were observed phoretic on the endemic scorpion species Birulatus israelensis Lourenço, 2002 (Scorpiones: Buthidae) in Israel. Both are myrm...

The biota of cave habitats faces heightened conservation risks, due to geographic isolation and high levels of endemism. Molecular datasets, in tandem with ecological surveys, have the potential to delimit precisely the nature of cave endemism and identify conservation priorities for microendemic species. Here, we sequenced ultraconserved elements...

The location of Israel at the junction of three continents leads to a unique fauna of both Palearctic and Afrotropical zoogeographic origins. Following systematic revisions over the past sixty years and the discovery of new species, the only available key to the pseudoscorpions of Israel has become outdated. We provide here an up-to-date checklist...

Simple Summary Spiders are potential natural enemies of insect pests in many crops, and their species composition in the crop may be influenced by nearby natural habitats. Here, we examined the effects of the habitat type (different sampling positions within the vineyard and in the nearby natural habitat) on spider assemblages in vineyards. Spider...

Advanced sequencing technologies have expedited resolving higher-level arthropod relationships. Yet, dark branches persist, principally among groups occurring in cryptic habitats. Among chelicerates, Solifugae (“camel spiders”) is the last order lacking a higher-level phylogeny and thus, historically characterized as “neglected [arachnid] cousins”....

Litter decomposition is expected to be positively associated with precipitation despite evidence that decomposers of varying sizes have different moisture dependencies. We hypothesized that higher tolerance of macro-decomposers to aridity may counterbalance the effect of smaller decomposers, leading to similar decomposition rates across climatic gr...

The location of Israel at the junction of three continents leads to a unique faunal combination of Palearctic and Afrotropic zoogeographic origins. Following systematic revisions over the past sixty years and the discovery of new species, the only available key to the pseudoscorpions (Arachnida: Pseudoscorpiones) of Israel (Beier 1963) has become o...

While pessimism dominates discussions on biodiversity loss, it is increasingly recognized that for the long‐term success of conservation programs, we also need hope. One way to foster hope is to celebrate the positive outcomes of conservation efforts. Here, we report on a successful step in the conservation efforts of Ayyalon cave, a unique subterr...

Caves have long been recognized as a window into the mechanisms of diversification and convergent evolution, due to the unique conditions of isolation and life in the dark. These lead to adaptations and reduce dispersal and gene flow, resulting in high levels of speciation and endemism. The Israeli cave arachnofauna remains poorly known, but likely...

Considerable progress has been achieved in resolving higher-level relationships of Arthropoda in the past two decades, largely precipitated by advances in sequencing technology. Yet, dark branches persist in the arthropod tree of life, principally among groups that are difficult to collect, occur in cryptic habitats, or are characterized by minute...

In the internet era, the digital architecture that keeps us connected and informed may also amplify the spread of misinformation. This problem is gaining global attention, as evidence accumulates that misinformation may interfere with democratic processes and undermine collective responses to environmental and health crises. In an increasingly poll...

Lycosa (Araneae, Lycosidae) is a wolf spider genus typical of subtropical latitudes in the western Palearctic. Despite being erected over 200 years ago, the taxonomy of Lycosa is still unclear. Many species formerly ascribed to it are currently being moved to other genera, while new species are still being described. The species of Lycosa of the we...

We describe a new troglophilic species of Filistata, F. betarif sp. nov. , collected from two caves in central Israel, by using light and electron microscopy and by DNA barcoding of the cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) gene. Sequences of this gene show more than 15% of divergence between the new species and its sibling, F. insidiatrix (Forsskål...

Caves constitute ideal study systems for investigating adaptation and speciation, as the abiotic conditions shared by aphotic habitats exert a set of environmental filters on their communities. Arachnids constitute an important component of many cave ecosystems worldwide. We investigated the population genomics of two whip spider species: Sarax ioa...

Asymmetrical rates of cladogenesis and extinction abound in the Tree of Life, resulting in numerous minute clades that are dwarfed by larger sister groups. Such taxa are commonly regarded as phylogenetic relicts or "living fossils" when they exhibit an ancient first appearance in the fossil record and prolonged external morphological stasis, partic...

Orchards may support high spider diversity relative to annual crops due to their structural complexity and relative stability. Multiple environmental conditions at the landscape, regional, and local scales may influence the assemblage composition of spiders in orchards. We asked which environmental variables best explains spider assemblage composit...

Mass media plays an important role in the construction and circulation of risk perception associated with animals. Widely feared groups such as spiders frequently end up in the spotlight of traditional and social media. We compiled an expert-curated global database on the online newspaper coverage of human-spider encounters over the past ten years...

Scorpions constitute a charismatic lineage of arthropods and comprise more than 2500 described species. Found throughout various tropical and temperate habitats, these predatory arachnids have a long evolutionary history, with a fossil record that began in the Silurian. While all scorpions are venomous, the asymmetrically diverse family Buthidae ha...

Brazil’s caves, home to diverse species and minerals, were stripped of protections by a recent presidential decree.

In the Internet era, the digital architecture that keeps us connected and informed may collaterally amplify the spread of misinformation and falsehood1,2. The magnitude of this problem is gaining global relevance3, as evidence accumulates that misinformation interferes with democratic processes and undermines collective responses to environmental a...

Deciphering the evolutionary relationships of Chelicerata (arachnids, horseshoe crabs, and allied taxa) has proven notoriously difficult, due to their ancient rapid radiation and the incidence of elevated evolutionary rates in several lineages. While conflicting hypotheses prevail in morphological and molecular datasets alike, the monophyly of Arac...

Deciphering the evolutionary relationships of Chelicerata (arachnids, horseshoe crabs, and allied taxa) has proven notoriously difficult, due to their ancient rapid radiation and the incidence of elevated evolutionary rates in several lineages. While conflicting hypotheses prevail in morphological and molecular datasets alike, the monophyly of Arac...

Long-branch attraction is a systematic artifact that results in erroneous groupings of fast-evolving taxa. The combination of short, deep internodes in tandem with LBA artifacts has produced empirically intractable parts of the Tree of Life. One such group is the arthropod subphylum Chelicerata, whose backbone phylogeny has remained unstable despit...

Evippinae (Araneae, Lycosidae) is a subfamily of old-world lycosids, comprising six genera and 67 species, most of them typically found in xeric habitats. Although Israel is located between the two distribution-centers of the subfamily, Africa and central Asia, only two species of the genus Evippa Simon, 1882, namely E. arenaria (Audouin, 1826) and...

Background Arachnids are important components of cave ecosystems and display many examples of troglomorphisms, such as blindness, depigmentation, and elongate appendages. Little is known about how the eyes of arachnids are specified genetically, let alone the mechanisms for eye reduction and loss in troglomorphic arachnids. Additionally, duplicatio...

Long-branch attraction is a systematic artifact that results in erroneous groupings of fast-evolving taxa. The combination of short, deep internodes in tandem with LBA artifacts has produced empirically intractable parts of the Tree of Life. One such group is the arthropod subphylum Chelicerata, whose backbone phylogeny has remained unstable despit...

Scorpions constitute a charismatic lineage of arthropods and comprise more than 2,500 described species. Found throughout various tropical and temperate habitats, these predatory arachnids have a long evolutionary history, with a fossil record that began in the Silurian. While all scorpions are venomous, the asymmetrically diverse family Buthidae h...

Arachnids are important components of cave ecosystems and display many examples of troglomorphisms, such as blindness, depigmentation, and elongate appendages. Little is known about how the eyes of arachnids are specified genetically, let alone the mechanisms for eye reduction and loss in troglomorphic arachnids. Additionally, paralogy of Retinal D...

Trees host a large share of the global arthropod diversity. Several methodologies have been described to sample arthropods from trees, ranging from active sampling techniques (e.g., visual searching, beating, or shaking the branches) to passive sampling devices. The majority of these collection techniques are destructive, and do not specifically ta...

The miniaturized arachnid order Palpigradi has ambiguous phylogenetic affinities owing to its odd combination of plesiomorphic and derived morphological traits. This lineage has never been sampled in phylogenomic datasets because of the small body size and fragility of most species, a sampling gap of immediate concern to recent disputes over arachn...

Extended materials and methods

A detailed account of the errors and anomalies in the construction of Matrix A and Matrix B in the work of Lozano Fernández et al. (2019).

Antlions (Neuroptera) are a group of sit-and-wait predator insects, with some species further specializing in digging conical pit-traps in the ground in order to catch prey. Studies on antlions’ predators are scarce with only few generalist predators known to feed on them. Here we report for the first time on field observations of antlions’ predati...

After tumultuous revisions to the family-level systematics of Laniatores (the armored harvestmen), the basally branching family Phalangodidae presently bears a disjunct and irregular distribution, attributed to the fragmentation of Pangea. One of the curious lineages assigned to Phalangodidae is the monotypic Israeli genus Haasus, the only Laniator...

Caves are excellent model systems to study the effects of abiotic factors on species distributions due to their selective conditions. Different ecological factors have been shown to affect species distribution depending on the scale of analysis, whether regional or local. The interplay between local and regional factors in explaining the spatial di...

Spiders are effective biological control agents in some agroecosystems. Their ability to control pest insects depends on their species diversity and abundance, which can be affected by environmental variables at different spatial scales. We investigated the effects of climatic gradient, landscape properties and local variables on spider diversity a...

Citizen science biodiversity monitoring projects are becoming very common. It is generally accepted that these joint projects, of scientists and the public, have a positive effect on biodiversity and conservation education programs as well as on policy-makers opinion Ganzevoort et al. (2017). Yet, there is still a debate on the quality of the data...

Because of its ability to expedite specimen identification and species delineation, the barcode index number (BIN) system presents a powerful tool to characterize hyperdiverse invertebrate groups such as the Acari (mites). However, the congruence between BINs and morphologically recognized species has seen limited testing in this taxon. We therefor...

Conservation of natural habitats within agroecosystems often enhances the abundance and species diversity of arthropod natural enemies, but does not necessarily improve the biological control of crop pests. Differences in habitat use between some natural enemies (favoring natural areas) and pests (aggregating on the crop plants), were proposed to u...

The hyper-arid Evrona nature reserve in the southern Arava Valley, one of the most unique and threatened ecosystems in Israel, experienced a large scale oil contamination in December 2014, when approximately 5,000 cubic meters of crude oil were spilled and spread into the reserves main and side streams. Given the expected adverse impact of the poll...

Background: Mating disruption (MD) employs high doses of a pest's synthetic sex pheromone in agricultural plots, to interfere with its reproduction. MD is assumed to have few behavioral effects on non-target arthropods, because sex pheromones are highly species-specific and non-toxic. Nevertheless, some natural enemies use their host's sex pheromo...

This is the first revision of Artema Walckenaer, 1837, a genus consisting of large and phylogenetically interesting species. Even though Artema is not species-rich (now eight nominal species), it has suffered from poor descriptions and synonymies. Our main goal was to gather all available material and to clarify species limits. Four species are eas...

Avrona monitoring Program: 'Avrona nature reserve is located in the southern 'Arava Rift Valley, Israel. The area is in a hyper-arid desert with a low annual precipitation (15-50mm), Intense solar radiation and hot summers that can reach 48 o C. It is characterized by gravel, loess and sandy soils with sparse perennial shrubs cover. In May 2016, se...

Competition for resources is a major organizing principle in communities of organisms that share similar ecological niches. Niche separation by means of exploitation or interference competition was investigated in two taxa of crop-inhabiting spiders that overlap in microhabitat use and have similar web design. Competition for prey and web sites was...

A new species of Charinus is described from Israel and new localities for C. ioanniticus are reported. Charinus israelensis sp. nov. is a cave dwelling species with extremely small median eyes, no median tubercle and reduced lateral eyes. It is similar to C. ioanniticus, which occurs in nearby areas, but can be differentiated by the shape of the ca...

The structure of an ecological community is shaped by diverse factors and processes, including competition for resources between species with similar ecological niches. Species coexistence in the face of competition is achieved by various mechanisms, such as niche partitioning, e.g. division of resources in space and time. We studied the effect of...

Leptonetidae and Phyxelididae were discovered as part of the first thorough cave survey of arthropods in Israel, and are reported here for the first time from caves in Israel. Both families were found in relatively temperate and humid caves at the western part of Israel and in intermediate elevation, at the cave entrance and the twilight zone. Lept...

Plantation forests are being planted at an increasing rate and account for 7% of the global forested area. The majority of planted forests are composed of exotic tree species, and Eucalyptus trees have become the most widely planted hardwood species in the world. While Eucalyptus plantations have economic importance, their role in native biodiversi...

Bathyphantes extricatus (O.P.-Cambridge, 1876) is transferred to the genus Sengletus Tanasevitch, 2008 n. comb. and Sengletus longiscapus Tanasevitch, 2008 becomes its junior synonym (N. Syn.). The species occurs in Egypt, Iran and Israel (new record).

Spiders (Araneae) are an important group of generalist predators in arable land. In temperate climates, spiders recolonise cropland annually from the surrounding landscape. In arid climates however, irrigated crops and the surrounding landscape matrix offer sharply different habitat conditions and this might negatively affect spider migration into...

The spread of arable land in semi-desert regions may change biodiversity in nearby uncultivated natural areas by increasing habitat loss and fragmentation and negatively affecting habitat specialists. Crop fields can harbor large populations of agrobionts, which may spill over into nearby semi-desert. We tested the influence of percentage area of a...

Biological photonic systems composed of anhydrous guanine crystals evolved separately in several taxonomic groups. Here, two such systems found in fish and spiders, both of which make use of anhydrous guanine crystal plates to produce structural colors, are examined. Measurements of the photonic-crystal structures using cryo-SEM show that the cryst...

Spiders are common generalist predators in agroecosystems and have been suggested to lower herbivore abundance in crops. It is not clear, however, if spiders can effectively suppress pest populations, and if so, by what mechanisms. In a microcosm experiment, we examined the consumption of the bird cherry-oat aphid, Rhopalosiphum padi L. (Homoptera:...

Intensively cultivated arable land and semi-desert are two dominant habitat types in the arid agroecosystem in the northwest Negev Desert (Israel). The present study compares activity-densitites and species richness of spiders in these distinctive habitat types. Sixteen wheat fields and twelve locations in the semi-desert were sampled during the wi...

Generalist predators contribute to pest suppression in agroecosystems. Spider communities, which form a substantial fraction of the generalist predator fauna in arable land, are characterized by two functional groups: web-building and cursorial (non-web-building) species. We investigated the relative impact of these two functional groups on a commo...

Abstract 1. Arthropods living in annual crops suffer mortality caused by agricultural practices. Therefore, migration from surrounding habitats is crucial to maintain populations of natural enemies of insect pests in crops. In desert agroecosystems there is a pronounced contrast between managed and unmanaged habitats, where irrigated and fertilised...

Intensively cultivated arable land and semi-desert are two dominant habitat types in the arid agroecosystem in the northwest Negev Desert (Israel). The present study compares activity-densities and species richness of spiders in these distinctive habitat types. Sixteen wheat fields and twelve locations in the semi-desert were sampled during the win...

We examined the influence of previous foraging success on foraging effort in the sheet web spider Frontinellina cf. frutetorum (Linyphiidae). Foraging effort was estimated via the spider’s investment in web construction as indicated by web size. We manipulated previous foraging success by providing spiders with supplementary prey items for 2 days a...