The complete mitochondrial genomes of Hybosida dauban Platnick, 1979 (Araneae, Palpimanidae) and Hypochilus pococki Platnick, 1987 (Araneae, Hypochilidae) from ultraconserved elements (UCEs) — 18a — Ky C. Becker¹ and L. Brian Patrick¹

¹Department of Biological Sciences, Dakota Wesleyan University, 1200 W. University Ave., Mitchell, SD, 57301, USA

Spiders play a crucial role as predators for insect pests in agriculture, forestry, and other economically significant industries. There are 52,185 species of spiders and only about 100 have had their mitogenomes sequenced and annotated. Here, the mitochondrial genomes of Hybosida dauban Platnick, 1979 and Hypochilus pococki Platnick, 1987 have been completely sequenced and annotated for the first time.Hybosida dauban is found in the subtropical forest of the Seychelles Islands, and it is found in subtropical/tropical forest leaf litter, above 400 m of elevation. Hypochilus pococki is found in the southern Appalachia region in the Eastern United States. From ultraconserved element (UCE) reads publicly available for both species in the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) database, contigs were assembled in SPAdes and the mitogenomes extracted from the resulting contigs. The mitogenome was annotated using MITOS2 and by comparing with other species of the order Araneae. The mitogenome for Hyb. dauban consists of 14,347 bp, and Hyp. pococki consists of 14,075 bp. Both mitogenomes are comprised of 22 transfer RNA (tRNA) genes, 13 protein coding genes (PCGs), 2 ribosomal RNA (rRNA) genes, and a control region. Phylogenetic analysis results in the placement of both species within their predicted clades. Hyb. dauban aligns in the Austrochiloidea clade, and Hyp. pococki aligns next to its sister species Hypochilus thorelli. These are the first mitogenomes to be sequenced and annotated for both species, the first for the family Palpimanidae, and only the second of the family Hypochilidae. The results of this study help shed light on the evolutionary history of spiders.

Dakota Wesleyan University
Dr L. Brian Patrick