Molecular taxonomy and phylogenetics of wolf spiders araneae lycosidae in Kerala

Abstract

Lycosidae, wolf spiders are the fifth largest spider family in the world. The present study investigates the molecular taxonomy and phylogeny of wolf spiders from diverse habitats across Kerala, India. Lycosids, a highly diverse and ecologically significant group of ground-dwelling spiders, are often morphologically similar, making species-level identification using classical taxonomy alone problematic. To overcome these limitations, this study employed an integrative taxonomic approach combining traditional morphological identification with modern molecular techniques. The study resulting in the collection of 25 species representing six. Among them two new species were reported to science (D. sebastiani and W. intermediata). One of the species was transferred from the genus Pardosa to Trochosa (T. mukundi). Another species P. mysorensis is synonymized with P. sumatrana. Three species were first reported from India (P. oriens, P. chapini and T. hongianna) and two species were first reported from Western Ghats region (P. parathompsoni and T. mukundi). Nine species were reported from state of Kerala for the first time. Four species, with inadequate and obscure descriptions were redescribed during the study (P. sumatrana, P. oriens, D. burasantiensis and T. mukundi). The mitochondrial Cytochrome C Oxidase subunit I (COI) gene was used for DNA barcoding. Phylogenetic relationships were inferred using Maximum Parsimony (MP), Maximum Likelihood (ML), and Bayesian Inference (BI) methods. Phylogenetic analyses provided accurate subfamily and genera level grouping of lycosids. Phylogeny results confirmed the genus transfer of T. mukundi. The results support the revalidation of sub-family Hippasinae, Zoicinae and Venoniinae and the synonymization of sub- family Wadicosinae to Pardosinae. The phylogeny trees disagree with the synonymization of the sub-family Pardosinae with Lycosinae and confirm the positioning of P. nebulosa species group within Pardosinae. The phylogenetic study also found that the lycosids in Kerala are not monophyletic in origin. This research represents one of the first exclusive taxonomic and phylogenetic studies on wolf spiders in Kerala and contributes significantly to the sparse molecular data available for Indian lycosids. The results emphasize the utility of combining morphological and molecular methods to resolve cryptic species complexes and enhance our understanding of spider biodiversity.