Systematics of the Spider Family Theridiidae

9707744吉列斯皮蜘蛛是地球上最多样化的生物群之一，它们的织网能力和多样化的进食策略是与众不同的。虽然许多研究已经研究了蜘蛛之间的关系，但七个最大的家族之一，梳足蜘蛛(蜘蛛科)，仍然是一个定义不清的物种的集合。除了是一个庞大而丰富的群体，球虫科还表现出一系列独特的生态和行为特征，这使它们变得异常有趣。例如，一些群体已经形成了只以其他物种的网为食的行为；另一些群体有复杂的网络体系结构；还有一些群体是社会性的，生活在大型公共网络中，分享捕捉昆虫和照看卵和幼崽的活动。这个家庭包括一些众所周知的引人注目的形式，如夏威夷的笑脸蜘蛛和臭名昭著的黑寡妇。在这项研究中，罗斯玛丽·吉莱斯皮和乔纳森·柯丁顿将利用几种不同类型的形态和分子特征来确定梳脚蜘蛛之间的系统发育关系，这是一个以前的难题，由于系统发育分析的进步，这个问题变得更容易解决。这项分析将帮助研究人员确定在地球上这个蜘蛛家族的历史上，许多形状、大小、颜色、行为、生态联想和毒液是如何出现的，以及出现的频率。

9707744 GILLESPIE Spiders are among the most diverse groups of organisms on earth, and are exceptional for their web-spinning abilities and diverse feeding strategies. Although a number of studies have examined relationships among spiders, one of the seven largest families, the comb-footed spiders (Theridiidae), remains an assemblage of poorly defined species. Besides being a large and abundant group, the Theridiidae exhibit a wide spectrum of unique ecological and behavioral attributes that make them unusually interesting. For example, some groups have developed the behavior of feeding exclusively on the webs of other species; others have elaborate web architectures; still others are social, living in large communal webs and sharing in the activities of capturing insects and tending the eggs and young. The family includes some well known and striking forms, such as the Hawaiian happy face spider and the notorious Black Widow. In this research, Rosemary Gillespie and Jonathan Coddington will make use of several different types of morphological and molecular characters to determine the phylogenetic relationships among comb-footed spiders, a previously difficult problem made more tractable by advances in phylogenetic analysis. The analysis will help the investigators determine how, and how often, the many shapes, sizes, colors, behaviors, ecological associations and venoms have appeared during the history of this spider family on Earth.