Taxonomy and systematics of the artoriine wolf spiders (Araneae: Lycosidae): is Artoria monophyletic?

André W. do Prado (Murdoch University, Australia); Volker W. Framenau (Murdoch University, Australia), Cor J. Vink (Faculty of Agriculture and Life Sciences, New Zealand); Luis N. Piacentini (Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales "Bernardino Rivadavia", Argentina) & Renner L.C. Baptista (Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil).

The genus Artoria currently represents the most speciose genus of wolf spiders in Australia represented by 42 described species and possibly another 120–150 undescribed species. Similar to most other genera in the subfamily Artoriinae, it includes comparatively small spiders of less than 10 mm body length which are generally found in leaf litter and near creeks and other water bodies, largely in the Bassian and Torresian Australian bioregions. The genus has also been reported from Asia, the Pacific, New Zealand and Africa. Morphological and molecular evidence suggests, however, that Artoria is paraphyletic although this assumption has never been tested with rigorous phylogenetic methods. This presentation will introduce our ABRS-funded taxonomic and systematic revision of the Australian and world-wide artoriine taxa with special reference to the genus Artoria. We will completely revise the Australian and New Zealand faunas of the genus and will test its monophyly with morphological and molecular methods, in particular with respect to other artorrine genera such as Artoriopsis, Anoteropsis, Notocosa, Syroloma, Lycosella, Navira and Lobizon.