Devonian Fauna of Terrestrial Arthropods viewed from the Phylogeny of Recent Mesothelae Spiders.

这项研究的目的是为了澄清一个谜，即中棘蜘蛛是如何从泥盆纪生存到近代的。本研究对中皮蛛亚目蜘蛛进行了系统的研究，包括古生代化石的信息。1）2004年至2006年，主要在九州南部、种子岛、屋久岛和奄美群岛进行了研究，从海滨低地到沿海低地，通过多种采集方法保存了山地森林。（2）除这些标本外，还在东京国立自然科学博物馆的实验室，通过形态学和解剖学方法，包括电子显微镜观察，对日本琉球群岛和东亚国家的现存材料进行了研究。3）在与日本、英国、德国、澳大利亚、中国等国的博物馆、大学的科学家们进行讨论的基础上，从2004年开始，发表了多篇描述新物种的论文。约有90个种被描述在Liphistiidae科下，包括40个heptathelines和50个liphistiines，都来自东亚。前一亚科分布于东南亚东北部，包括日本西南部、中国和越南;后一亚科分布于东南亚西南部，包括缅甸东部、泰国、马来西亚半岛和苏门答腊。乍一看，两个分布区被湄公河流域分隔开来，彼此不重叠。虽然缺乏来自老挝和柬埔寨的信息，但2007年在巴西圣保罗举行的国际蛛形纲学大会上提出了一些关于这种异地分布可能起源的假设。

The aim of this study was to clear a mystery, how did the Mesothelae spiders have survived from the Devonian Period to the Recent. A systematic study of spiders of the suborder Mesothelae (Araneae) including information of Paleozoic fossils was carried out as follows.1) Research trips were made between 2004 and 2006 mainly in southern Kyushu, Tanegashima and Yakushima Islands, and Amami Islands, southern Japan, and many specimens of both Methothelae and Opisthothelae and their ecological data were collected in selected forests from lowlands near seaside to preserved mountainous forests with various collecting methods. Travel expenses were used for the researches.2) Other than these specimens, existent materials of Ryukyu Islands of Japan and those from East Asian countries were studied in the laboratory of the National Museum of Nature and Science, Tokyo, by morphological and anatomical methods including observation with electron microscope. For these operations, budget was shared for part-time job for assistants and consumption articles.3) On the basis of discussions with scientists of museums and universities not only of Japan but also of foreign countries as England, Germany, Australia, and China, several papers with descriptions of new species were published since 2004. About 90 species described under the family Liphistiidae include 40 heptathelines and 50 liphistiines, all from East Asia. The former subfamily is distributed in the northeastern part of Southeast Asia, including Southwest Japan, China and Vietnam, while the latter ranges in the southwestern part with eastern Burma, Thailand, the Peninsular Malaysia and Sumatra. At the first sight both the distributional ranges are separated without overlapping each other by the Mekong valley. Although information from Laos and Cambodia is lacking, some suppositions on possible origin of this allopatry were presented at the International Congress of Arachnology held in 2007 at Sao Paulo, Brazil.