Phylogenetic relationships of southwestern spiders in Iran utilizing the mitochondrial COI marker

The significant morphological diversity found in spiders complicates their classification. DNA barcoding is regarded as a fundamental instrument in taxonomy due to its accuracy in species identification.In this study, spiders were collected from Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad Province.

The species were identified using a valid identification key and then compared with submitted sequences in GenBank. Identifiable species were selected for molecular evaluation and phylogenetic analyses using the Maximum Likelihood phylogenetic tree-building algorithm. The study focused on 7 families and 13 species of specimens. The correlation between the identified COI and the sequences deposited in GenBank was distinctly evident and exhibited a strong clustering at both the family and species levels.