Integrative taxonomy and species delimitation in harvestmen: a revision of the western North American genus Sclerobunus (Opiliones: Laniatores: Travunioidea)

Alpha taxonomy, and specifically the delimitation of species, is becoming increasingly objective and integrative. The use of coalescent-based methods applied to genetic data is providing new tools for the discovery and delimitation of species. Here, we use an integrative approach via a combination of discovery-based multivariate morphological analyses to detect potential new species. These potential species are then used as a priori species in hypothesis-driven validation analyses with genetic data. This research focuses on the harvestmen genus Sclerobunus found throughout the mountainous regions of western North America. Based on our analyses, we conduct a revision of Sclerobunus resulting in synonymy of Cyptobunus with Sclerobunus including transfer of S. cavicolens comb. nov. and elevation of both subspecies of S. ungulatus: S. ungulatus comb. nov. and S. madhousensis comb. nov., stat. nov. The three subspecies of S. robustus are elevated, S. robustus, S. glorietus stat. nov., and S....阿尔法分类学（Alpha taxonomy），尤其是物种界定领域，正愈发趋向客观化与整合化。将溯祖分析法（coalescent-based methods）应用于遗传数据的研究路径，已为物种发现与物种界定提供了全新的技术手段。本研究采用整合分类学范式：首先通过基于发现的多变量形态学分析，初步侦测潜在新物种；随后将这些潜在物种作为先验物种，结合遗传数据开展假说驱动的验证分析。本研究聚焦于广泛分布于北美西部山地的长脚盲蛛属（Sclerobunus）类群。基于本次分析结果，我们对该属开展了分类修订：将Cyptobunus归为Sclerobunus的同物异名，同时纳入新组合种S. cavicolens comb. nov.；将S. ungulatus的两个亚种均提升为独立物种，即S. ungulatus comb. nov.与S. madhousensis comb. nov., stat. nov.。此外，S. robustus的三个亚种亦均被提升为独立物种，分别为S. robustus、S. glorietus stat. nov.以及S....