20.500.12556/DiRROS-22742 Testing species boundaries of an unknown Dolomedes (Araneae, Dolomedidae) morphospecies from isolated islands Raft spiders, family Dolomedidae, represent a group of spiders with 7 genera distributed near globally well known for a semi-aquatic lifestyle. One of the iconic genera representing such a unique lifestyle is the largest and diverse dolomedid genus Dolomedes. Although Dolomedes is well surveyed in parts of its distribution, its diversity in the tropics remains largely unknown, such as the western Indian Ocean region with most of the islands unsurveyed. Recent expeditions to Madagascar and La Réunion Island discovered a series of specimens that appear to belong to an unknown morphospecies of Dolomedes, exhibiting varying degrees of differences in the diagnostic characteristics. To further test and define their species boundaries, we include molecular evidence followed by species delimitation analyses. Our findings indicate that specimens from both islands are conspecific. Consequently, we introduce a new species to science, Dolomedes reuniascar sp. nov., providing detailed illustrations, descriptions of its variations and ecological characteristics. Based on our observations and existing literature, we speculate that the presence of this species on the two isolated islands could be attributed to either highly efficient dispersal abilities, such as ballooning of spiderlings, or human-mediated introduction events. fishing spider phylogeny taxonomy Madagascar Réunion ribiški pajek filogenija taksonomija Madagaskar Réunion true false true Angleški jezik Slovenski jezik Neznano 2025-06-20 09:40:46 2025-06-20 09:40:47 2025-10-24 03:52:05 0000-00-00 00:00:00 2025 0 0 Nasl. z nasl. zaslona; Soavtorji: Kuang-Ping Yu, Brice Derepas & Arnaud Henrard; Opis vira z dne 20. 6. 2025; str. 99-130 iss. 1 Vol. 997 2025 0000-00-00 Zaloznikova Objavljeno NiDoloceno 0000-00-00 0000-00-00 2025-06-12 592/599 2118-9773 10.5852/ejt.2025.997.2927 240031491 https://doi.org/10.5852/ejt.2025.997.2927 1 2243a513-4d99-11f0-bf0a-001a4af901a5 https://dirros.openscience.si/Dokument.php?lang=slv&id=33003 RAZ_Cazanove_Gregory_2025.pdf RAZ_Cazanove_Gregory_2025.pdf 1 3CF798A1952B6C19DE17BAFEBA5D7818 9bd614fba4532651688ef16f7081fa42d829ce30f59e759d6ece27ec1c1b35ce fda5838d-4d99-11f0-bf0a-001a4af901a5 https://dirros.openscience.si/Dokument.php?lang=slv&id=33005 Supplementary_files.zip Supplementary_files.zip Dopolnilne informacije Supplementary files 1 932F1CAA55770C574385E982CC726682 73650224ed6efd60de87152a50d76f5e0d1445f68ffc514fe63c794cb054ecd2 b17d5422-4db9-11f0-bf0a-001a4af901a5 https://dirros.openscience.si/Dokument.php?lang=slv&id=33030 https://doi.org/10.5852/ejt.2025.997.13231 Sequences used for genetic analysis 0 c363c021-4db9-11f0-bf0a-001a4af901a5 https://dirros.openscience.si/Dokument.php?lang=slv&id=33031 https://doi.org/10.5852/ejt.2025.997.13233 Sequences of Dolomedes reuniascar sp. nov.uploaded in GenBank 0 d224681a-4db9-11f0-bf0a-001a4af901a5 https://dirros.openscience.si/Dokument.php?lang=slv&id=33032 Nacionalni inštitut za biologijo 0 0 0