Systematics, distribution patterns and historical biogeography of the Central America wandering spider genus Kiekie Polotow & Brescovit, 2018 (Araneae: Ctenidae).

ABSTRACT

Kiekie Polotow & Brescovit, 2018 is a Neotropical genus of Ctenidae, with most of its species occuring in Central America. In this study, we review the systematics of Kiekie and describe five new species and the unknown females of K. barrocolorado Polotow & Brescovit, 2018 and K. garifuna Polotow & Brescovit, 2018, and the unknown male of K. verbena Polotow & Brescovit, 2018. In addition, we described the female of K. montanense which was wrongly assigned as K. griswoldi Polotow & Brescovit, 2018 (both species are sympatric). We provided a modified diagnosis for previously described species based on the morphology of the newly discovered species and in situ photographs of living specimens. We inferred a molecular phylogeny using four nuclear (histone H3, 28S rRNA, 18S rRNA and ITS-2) and three mitochondrial genes (cytochrome c oxidase subunit I or COI, 12S rRNA and 16S rRNA) to test the monophyly of the genus and the evolutionary relationships of its species. Lastly, we reconstruct the historical biogeography and map diversity and endemism distributional patterns of the different species. This study increased the number of known species of Kiekie from 13 to 18, and we describe a new genus, Eldivo which is sister lineage of Kiekie. Most of the diversity and endemism of the genus Kiekie is located in the montane ecosystems of Costa Rica followed by the lowland rainforest of the Pacific side (Limon Basin). Kiekie originated in the North America Tropical region, this genus started diversifying in the Late Miocene and spread to Lower Central America and South America. In that region, Kiekie colonized independently several times the montane ecosystems corresponding to periods of uplifting of Talamanca and Central Cordilleras.