Caribbean Biogeography of Arachnids. Arachnida

This BioProject contains the COI barcodes obtained from The Caribbean Biogeography Project, or CarBio. CarBio used mtDNA haplotype and multi-locus phylogenetic analyses of multiple arachnid lineages to study biogeographic patterns in a major Caribbean biodiversity hotspot comprising Darwinian volcanic islands, Wallacean fragment islands, and adjacent mainland areas. Study design contrasted low, medium, and high dispersal lineages, sampled from diverse islands, to illuminate the principles of island biogeography. Results to date have suggested that the species richness and endemicity of island lineages is severely underestimated, and that speciation can occur at unusually short geographic scales, e.g. between cave systems or isolated habitats. Voucher specimens and tissues used in this project are deposited in the Department of Entomology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution. Funding for CarBio was provided by NSF DEB1050187 DEB1050253 DEB1314749 (2011), the Smithsonian Institution Global Genome Initiative, and the federally-funded Smithsonian Institution Barcode Network (FY13).