Research Article |
Corresponding author: Barbara C. Baehr ( barbara.baehr@qm.qld.gov.au ) Academic editor: Martin Husemann
© 2017 Barbara C. Baehr, Robert Raven, Danilo Harms.
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Citation:
Baehr BC, Raven R, Harms D (2017) “High Tide or Low Tide”: Desis bobmarleyi sp. n., a new spider from coral reefs in Australia’s Sunshine State and its relative from Sāmoa (Araneae, Desidae, Desis). Evolutionary Systematics 1: 111-120. https://doi.org/10.3897/evolsyst.1.15735
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Spiders of the genus Desis Walckenaer, 1837 (Araneae: Desidae) are water-adapted spiders and live in the intertidal zone on reefs, marine debris and under rocks. Here, we describe a new intertidal species from tropical Queensland and name it after Bob Marley, whose song “High Tide or Low Tide” inspired us as it lives in a “high tide low tide” habitat. We also re-describe a close morphological relative, Desis vorax L. Koch, 1872 from Sāmoa. This species was described some 150 years ago from the Godeffroy Collection which holds the oldest major collection of Australasian and Pacific spiders, now mainly hosted in the Centre of Natural History in Hamburg (CeNak). A third species, Desis hartmeyeri Simon, 1909, was described from juvenile specimens only and is considered a nomen dubium.
“None but ourselves can free our minds.”
Bob Marley, Redemption Song (1980).
Taxonomy systematics new species Bob Marley intertidal spiders Australia Pacific
When Amalie Dietrich travelled from Europe to Australia in 1863 she not only attempted to collect animals and plants for the museum trade, but also sought independence and liberty. A strong-headed and adventurous women by nature, she seized new opportunities and took risks on a then-unexplored continent to elevate herself from poverty and oppression. Her life story is that of adventure and also life’s struggles and how to overcome them (
Reggae legend Bob Marley certainly had a different background but shared with Dietrich and other explorers some character traits: adventurous and resilient at heart, he liberated himself and his peers from poverty and hopelessness. He took to music, not nature, but left traces through songs that teach optimism and independence of the mind, rather than hate and passive endurance. The song ‘High Tide or Low Tide’ promotes love and friendship through all struggles of life. It is his music that aided a field trip to Port Douglas in coastal Queensland, Australia, to collect spiders with a highly unique biology.
Intertidal spiders of the genus Desis have a remarkable biology in that they are truly marine animals (
It is the unique Godeffroy Collection of Australian and Pacific spiders at the Centre of Natural History in Hamburg, which contains almost all of the spiders collected by Amalie Dietrich, and also the first desid to be described from this part of the world. Three species were described in 1872 as part of the first major monograph on Australian spiders “Die Arachniden Australiens” which was compiled for more than a decade by distinguished arachnologists Ludwig Koch and Duke Eduard von Keyserling (Koch and Keyserling 1871–1883). Both arachnologists received the material from the Godeffroy Museum for taxonomic research and the desids were originally collected from Singapore, New Guinea and Sāmoa. Soon after, additional specimens were collected from Australia (
The present paper revisits some of the intertidal species of Desis in Australia by re-examination of material of the Godeffroy Collection, but also details the discovery of a new species from Port Douglas near Cairns in Queensland. The new species was identified during a collecting trip along the coastline of Australia’s, “Sunshine State” (Fig.
Locality and life images of Desis bobmarleyi sp. n.: A, beach near Port Douglas high tide; B, same low tide; C, Desis bobmarleyi sp. n. on coral at low tide (photo: Paul Hoye); D, Desis bobmarleyi male holotype (photo: R. Raven).
In this paper we describe Bob Marley’s, intertidal spider from Queensland, a species that can live in “High Tide or Low Tide” of extreme habitat, and clarify the status of two other poorly-known species, one from the Godeffroy Collection and a second from south-western Australia, both deposited in CeNak, through detailed re-examinations of the specimens used for the original descriptions. Both species have been preserved for more than a century but not been studied in detail since their discovery. By doing so, we honour those that emancipate themselves from oppression, mental or organisational, and seek freedom and independence.
Recent specimens of Desis were collected and stored in 75% EtOH. All specimens were examined in 75% EtOH using a Leica M 205 A microscope. The female genitalia were dissected, cleared with Pancreatin (
MALE HOLOTYPE (
The specific name is a patronym in honour of Bob Marley, an internationally renowned Jamaican Reggae singer and songwriter.
We propose Bob Marley’s Intertidal Spider as a common name.
Males of Desis bobmarleyi sp. n. resemble D. kenyonae, D. marina and D. vorax in having a broad, semicircular conductor with a retrolateral conductor plate, a hood-shaped DTA and a spine-like MTA but can be separated from these by having a broadly triangular conductor plate (CP), a stout conductor tip and an indented hood–shaped tip of the retrodistal apophysis (DTA) (Figs
Male (Holotype,
Female (allotype,
Known from intertidal zones of the Great Barrier Reef at the north-eastern coast of Queensland: Australia’s “Sunshine State”. The exact distribution range along the coastline of Australia is still unknown.
165 Desis hartmeyeri Simon, 1909, Südwest-Australien, Albany, 13–22 August 1905, Syntype (
JUVENILE FEMALE SYNTYPE (
The description of this species was based on juvenile specimens (
169 Desis vorax L. Koch, 1872, 345–346, Taf. 29 fig. 1-1, Sāmoa-Inseln, Upolu, male Holotype (Mus. GODEFFROY Nr. 6538) (32) (
MALE HOLOTYPE (
Males of D. vorax can be separated from other Desis species, including D. bobmarleyi, D. marina and D. kenyonae, by having a slim, triangular conductor plate (CP) and a slender conductor tip (Fig.
Male (Holotype,
Desis vorax L. Koch, 1872, male holotype (ZSMH- A0000099): A, habitus, dorsal view; B, same, ventral view; C, prosoma, ventral view; D, male palp, retrolateral view; D, same, ventral view; E, same, prolateral view;. Scale bars: 1.0 mm.
Desis: A–D, Desis bobmarleyi sp. n., male holotype (
Currently known only from Upolu, one of the islands of the Independent State of Sāmoa. The wider distribution of this species is still unknown but it may be more widespread across the islands of Sāmoa.
Apparently, this species has not been re-collected since its original discovery but may have been overlooked because it is found in habitats that are not usually associated with spiders.
The first specimens were recorded in northern Queensland in the 1970s and early 1980s from specimens that were active during the day amongst intertidal rocks that were exposed only at low tide. Further observations were made on flat reefs and in a lagoon where the spiders were found under loose live and dead corals (Acropora sp.). A thin film of silk was noted in the concavity of the underside of the coral and these may have been remains of the silken retreats during high tide. The spiders were within 20 m of the shoreline and the area would be flooded up to 3 m during high tide. Recently, Mr Paul Hoye, then of the Cairns Municipal Council, brought to our attention a population at Port Douglas north of Cairns. The spiders were found on an inshore reef, about 600 m from shore. Mr Hoye noted that he was only able to find the spiders because the tide was exceptionally low. By searching at such a low tide, two of the authors (RJR, BB) were able to confirm the sighting and take a male and female that were active at a very low tide on 11 January 2009 at night at 2am.
Historical taxonomic collections provide the reference and context for current biodiversity studies, in particular if they are rich in type specimens. The Godeffroy Collection of arachnids at the CeNak is an important historical source and comprises several hundred type specimens of arachnids from all over the world, including more than 450 types from Australia and the Pacific Islands (
There is currently no taxonomic revision for the worldwide-distributed spiders of the genus Desis, which are found on the reefs along many coastlines around the world. All species within this genus that are known from both sexes share a similar morphology of the male and female genitalia but are also very conserved at the somatic level and appear to be closely related at the morphological level. The similarities between most described species and the relatively low species numbers (13 species are currently recognised worldwide) may be caused by the specifics of the marine habitat that allows for dispersal across wide distances, but may also indicate ecological constrains that lead to morphological similarity. At least some species appear to have wide ranges and may disperse across wide distances within the aquatic habitat, such as Desis marina (
A detailed molecular analysis of all Desis species, including more detailed analyses of spatial distributions and molecular data, is suggested here to test for dispersal capacities, species boundaries beyond morphology, and ecological speciation scenarios rather than vicariance that is generally evoked as a cause for speciation scenarios in terrestrial spiders. In this context, we also notice that the SEM image of Desis formidabilis (
This paper was completed with financial support from the Queensland Museum in Brisbane and the CeNak in Hamburg. We would like to thank Wendy Hebron for the epigyne drawings and Paul Hoye for the photos of live spiders. We also thank Martin Husemann and the referees Alireza Zamani and Volker Framenau for their helpful comments of an earlier draft of this manuscript