A Probable Case of Incipient Speciation in Schizocosa Wolf Spiders Driven by Allochrony, Habitat Use, and Female Mate Choice

Authors

R. Tucker Gilman, University of ManchesterFollow
Kasey Fowler-Finn, Saint Louis University, Saint Louis
Eileen A. Hebets, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow

ORCID IDs

http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2000-7966

http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2951-3283

http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9382-2040

Document Type

Article

Date of this Version

6-28-2018

Citation

Am. Nat. 2018. Vol. 192, pp. 332–346.

http://dx.doi.org/10.5061/dryad.qc6176k

Comments

2018 by The University of Chicago.

Abstract

There is growing evidence that speciation can occur between populations that are not geographically isolated. The emergence of assortative mating is believed to be critical to this process, but how assortative mating arises in diverging populations is poorly understood. The wolf spider genus Schizocosa has become a model system for studying mechanisms of assortative mating. We conducted a series of experiments to identify the factors that control mate-pair formation in a Schizocosa population that includes both ornamented and nonornamented males. We show that the population also includes two previously unrecognized female phenotypes. One female phenotype mates mostly or exclusively with ornamented males, and the other mates mostly or exclusively with unornamented males. Assortative mating within these groups is maintained by differences in maturation time, microhabitat use, and female mate preference. We conclude that the population is not a single species, as previously believed, but rather an incipient species pair with multiple overlapping mechanisms of reproductive isolation. The identification of a new incipient species pair in the well-studied and rapidly speciating Schizocosa clade presents new opportunities for the study of speciation without geographic isolation.