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Introduction
Publications
Publications (31)
The philosophical basis, and utility of DNA barcoding has been a subject of numerous debates. While most literature embraces it, some studies continue to question its use in dipterans, butterflies, and marine gastropods. Here, we explore the utility of DNA barcoding in identifying spider species that vary in taxonomic affiliation, morphological dia...
Island systems provide excellent arenas to test evolutionary hypotheses pertaining to gene flow and diversification of dispersal-limited organisms. Here we focus on an orbweaver spider genus Cyrtognatha (Tetragnathidae) from the Caribbean, with the aims to reconstruct its evolutionary history, examine its biogeographic history in the archipelago, a...
Given the limited success of past and current conservation efforts, an alternative approach is to preserve tissues and genomes of targeted organisms in cryobanks to make them accessible for future generations. Our pilot preservation project aimed to obtain, expertly identify, and permanently preserve a quarter of the known spider species diversity...
Keywords: aggressive spillover mate size difference mating personality sexual cannibalism voracity Intersexual agonistic encounters prior to mating are thought to result from the 'spillover' of the advantages of a voracious personality within a foraging context that is maladaptive in a mating context. We tested this idea by examining the repeatabil...
Recent declines in insect abundances, especially populations of wild pollinators, pose a threat to many natural and agricultural ecosystems. Traditional species monitoring relies on morphological character identification and is inadequate for efficient and standardized surveys. DNA barcoding has become a standard approach for molecular identificati...
Higher-level classifications often must account for monotypic taxa representing depauperate evolutionary lineages and lacking synapomorphies of their better-known, well-defined sister clades. In a ranked (Linnean) or unranked (phylogenetic) classification system, discovering such a depauperate taxon does not necessarily invalidate the rank classifi...
Adult body size, development time, and growth rates are components of organismal life histories, which crucially influence fitness and are subject to trade-offs. If selection is sex-specific, male and female developments can eventually lead to different optimal sizes. This can be achieved through developmental plasticity and sex-specific developmen...
Dispersal ability can affect levels of gene flow thereby shaping species distributions and richness patterns. The intermediate dispersal model of biogeography (IDM) predicts that in island systems, species diversity of those lineages with an intermediate dispersal potential is the highest. Here, we tested this prediction on long-jawed spiders (Tetr...
Subterranean environments of Iran are severely understudied. Here, we advance
the knowledge of Iranian cave biodiversity by following three goals: (i) to investigate
Iranian caves for troglobiotic beetles; (ii) to understand the phylogenetic relationships
and estimate the timing of Iranian cave colonization by Duvalius Delarouzée, 1859;
and (iii) t...
Reconstructing biogeographic history is challenging when dispersal biology of studied species is poorly understood, and they have undergone a complex geological past. Here, we reconstruct the origin and subsequent dispersal of coin spiders (Nephilidae: Herennia Thorell), a clade of 14 species inhabiting tropical Asia and Australasia. Specifically,...
Background:
A major challenge in biodiversity science is to understand the factors contributing to the variability of species richness -the number of different species in a community or region - among comparable taxonomic lineages. Multiple biotic and abiotic factors have been hypothesized to have an effect on species richness and have been used a...
Aim
A wholistic biogeographical reconstruction should combine a phylogeny with specifics of organismal biology, plate tectonics and consequent probabilities of historic dispersal events. Here, we demonstrate this approach by reconstructing the geographical origin and sequence of intercontinental colonization of the golden orbweaving spiders, a glob...
The Caribbean archipelago offers one of the best natural arenas for testing biogeographic hypotheses. The intermediate dispersal model of biogeography (IDM) predicts variation in species richness among lineages on islands to relate to their dispersal potential. To test this model, one would need background knowledge of dispersal potential of lineag...
The Caribbean archipelago offers one of the best natural arenas for testing biogeographic hypotheses. The intermediate dispersal model of biogeography (IDM) predicts variation in species richness among lineages on islands to relate to their dispersal potential. To test this model, one would need background knowledge of dispersal potential of lineag...
Organismal variation in dispersal ability can directly affect levels of gene flow amongst populations, therefore importantly shaping species distributions and species richness patterns. The intermediate dispersal model of biogeography (IDM) predicts that in island systems, species diversity of those lineages with an intermediate dispersal potential...
Island systems provide excellent arenas to test evolutionary hypotheses pertaining to gene flow and diversification of dispersal-limited organisms. Here we focus on an orbweaver spider genus Cyrtognatha (Tetragnathidae) from the Caribbean, with the aims to reconstruct its evolutionary history, describe its biogeographic history in the archipelago,...
Though not uncommon in other animals, heterospecific mating is rarely reported in arachnids. We investigated sexual interactions among four closely related and syntopical African golden orbweb spiders, Nephila inaurata, N. fenestrata, N. komaci, and N. senegalensis. In two South African localities, female webs were often inhabited by heterospecific...
The use of unique DNA sequences as a method for taxonomic identification is no longer fundamentally controversial, even though debate continues on the best markers, methods, and technology to use. Although both existing databanks such as GenBank and BOLD, as well as reference taxonomies, are imperfect, in best case scenarios ''barcodes'' (whether s...
The results of the barcode matching test.
Original sequences this project submitted to BOLD and GenBank (only those on GenBank are also publically available on BOLD, for all others, see http://ezlab.zrc-sazu.si/dna/). Legend: MNH, SI = National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution; EZ LAB = Evolutionary Zoology Lab, ZRC SAZU; NMBE = Naturhistorisches Museum der Burgergemeinde...
The downloaded sequences used in the species comparison.
The use of unique DNA sequences as a method for taxonomic identification is no longer fundamentally controversial, even though debate continues on the best markers, methods, and technology to use. Although both existing databanks such as GenBank and BOLD, as well as reference taxonomies, are imperfect, in best case scenarios “barcodes” (whether sin...
The use of unique DNA sequences as a method for taxonomic identification is no longer fundamentally controversial, even though debate continues on the best markers, methods, and technology to use. Although both existing databanks such as GenBank and BOLD, as well as reference taxonomies, are imperfect, in best case scenarios “barcodes” (whether sin...
Corrected TaxPub XML of the original publication
Corrected occurrences as Darwin Core Archive
The sentence with corrected counts should now read: "We here report on the faunistic part of this project, which resulted in 320 species ( 224 in Slovenia, 142 in Switzerland) for which identification was reasonably established".