Mitochondrial DNA phylogeny of camel spiders (Arachnida: Solifugae) from Iran

Abstract

In the present study, the mitochondrial DNA phylogeny of five solifuge families of Iran is presented using phylogenetic analysis of mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase, subunit 1 (COI) sequence data. Moreover, we included available representatives from seven families from GenBank to examine the genetic distance between Old and New World taxa and test the phylogenetic relationships among more solifuge families. Phylogenetic relationships were reconstructed based on the two most probabilistic methods, Maximum Likelihood (ML) and Bayesian inference (BI) approaches. Resulting topologies demonstrated the monophyly of the families Daesiidae, Eremobatidae, Galeodidae, Karschiidae and Rhagodidae, whereas the monophyly of the families Ammotrechidae and Gylippidae was not supported. Also, within the family Eremobatidae, the subfamilies Eremobatinae and Therobatinae and the genus Hemerotrecha were paraphyletic or polyphyletic. According to the resulted topologies, the taxonomic placements of Trichotoma michaelseni (Gylippidae) and Nothopuga sp. 1 (Ammotrechidae) are still remain under question and their revision might be appropriate. According to the results of this study, within the family Galeodidae, the validity of the genus Galeodopsis is supported, while the validity of the genus Paragaleodes still remains uncertain. Moreover, our results revealed that the species Galeodes bacillatus, and Rhagodes melanochaetus are junior synonyms of G. caspius, and R. eylandti, respectively.

Keywords:

• Bayesian inference
• camel spiders
• COI
• maximum likelihood
• Solpugida

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the reviewers for their valuable comments on the manuscript. We are very grateful to Dr. Moradmand who provided the facility for accessing the syntype specimen of Rhagodes melanochaetus (Rhagodessa transcaspica) and Karschia persica from Senckenberg museum (Germany). R. Babaei Savasari, A. Mohammadyari, A. Mahmoudi and their families are greatly acknowledged for their help during collecting trips to west of Iran.

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of this article.

Funding

This study was supported by the Office of Research Affairs, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad [Project no. 3/25107], Office of Research Affairs, Golestan University and the Iran National Science Foundation [INSF-90001780]. Their financial supports are greatly acknowledged.