This is a sort
of companion paper to our new molecular phylogeny of pholcid spiders (Eberle et al. 2018). With almost 600 species, that primary paper more than
triples the largest previously available molecular phylogeny of the
family (Dimitrov et al. 2013). The
first molecular phylogeny of pholcids (Bruvo-Madaric et al. 2005) included no more than 32
species. Numbers of species included the the three molecular phylogenies of Pholcidae. However, the main focus of the main phylogeny paper is not the phylogeny per se but the relationship between microhabitat shifts and species diversification. Systematic and taxonomic aspects are not treated in any detail. That is the focus of this companion paper: it critically evaluates the implications of the molecular phylogeny for pholcid systematics. |