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Summary: 2342
2006 The Society for the Study of Evolution. All rights reserved.
Evolution, 60(11), 2006, pp. 23422351
SOCIALITY IN THERIDIID SPIDERS: REPEATED ORIGINS OF AN
EVOLUTIONARY DEAD END
INGI AGNARSSON,1,2,3,4 LETICIA AVILEŽ S,1,5 JONATHAN A. CODDINGTON,3,6 AND WAYNE P. MADDISON1,2,7
1Department of Zoology, University of British Columbia, 2370-6270 University Boulevard, Vancouver,
British Columbia V6T 1Z4, Canada
2Department of Botany, University of British Columbia, 3529-6270 University Boulevard, Vancouver,
British Columbia V6T 1Z4, Canada
3Department of Entomology, Smithsonian Institution, NHB-105, PO Box 37012, Washington, D.C. 20013-7012
4E-mail: ingi@zoology.ubc.ca
5E-mail: laviles@zoology.ubc.ca
6E-mail: coddington@si.edu
7E-mail: wmaddisn@interchange.ubc.ca
Abstract. Evolutionary ``dead ends'' result from traits that are selectively advantageous in the short term but ultimately
result in lowered diversification rates of lineages. In spiders, 23 species scattered across eight families share a social
system in which individuals live in colonies and cooperate in nest maintenance, prey capture, and brood care. Most
of these species are inbred and have highly female-biased sex ratios. Here we show that in Theridiidae this social
system originated eight to nine times independently among 11 to 12 species for a remarkable 18 to 19 origins across
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