Speciation without changes in genital shape: a case study on Brazilian pholcid spiders (Araneae: Pholcidae)

Bernhard A. Huber, Cristina A. Rheims, Antonio D. Brescovit

Abstract

Speciation in arthropods is usually coupled with marked changes in genital morphology, which explains the usefulness of genitalia in distinguishing closely related species. The present paper describes specimens that are assigned to separate species based on extreme size differences and colour pattern differences, but the shape of the genitalia is essentially identical. We argue that such cryptic species may be more common than currently assumed, but if marked morphological (non-genital) differences are missing, traditional taxonomic methodology is biased against discovering them. The two new species from the Brazilian Atlantic Forest are tentatively assigned to the genus Psilochorus: P. itaguyrussu n. sp. and P. ybytyriguara n. sp.

Key words: genitalia, species-specificity, size, Psilochorus.