Molecular phylogeny of east Asian wolf spiders (Araneae: Lycosidae) inferred from mitochondrial 12S ribosomal DNA

Abstract This study investigates molecular phylogenetic relationships of East Asian wolf spiders (Araneae: Lycosidae), focusing on species from Korea. We analyzed a sequence data set making up a portion of the mitochondrial 12S gene from 22 Korean lycosid species, belonging to seven genera (Alopecosa, Arctosa, Lycosa, Pardosa, Pirata, Trochosa, and Xerolycosa) in four subfamilies (Evippinae, Lycosinae, Pardosinae, and Venoniinae). All Korean wolf spiders were well grouped within monophyletic clades corresponding to existing genera, with the exception of Arctosa and Alopecosa, which were both polyphyletic. The genus Arctosa formed two distantly separated clades, and the clade composed of A. kwangreungensis and A. ebicha was posited as the sister group of all the other Korean wolf spiders. We also combined our data set with 44 previously published sequences from other lycosids from various geographical regions. As with the analyses for Korean taxa, the genus Arctosa still contained two distantly separated c...