A new species in the spider family Myrmecicultoridae (Arachnida, Araneae) and evidence of myrmecophagy in the family

A new species in the unusual myrmecophagous family Myrmecicultoridae is described. This new species, Myrmecicultor pueblaensis sp. nov. shares several unique morphological features with the one other species in the family, M. chihuahuensis Ramírez, Grismado, and Ubick 2019. A multi-locus phylogenetic analysis of six molecular markers from the mitochondrial (12 S rDNA, 16S rDNA, cytochrome oxidase subunit I) and nuclear (18S rDNA, 28S rDNA, histone H3) genomes also places this new species as sister to M. chihuahuensis.

In addition, the new species is a myrmecophage and shows similar hunting behavior to M. chihuahuensis. We hypothesize that additional species of this unusual family may be distributed throughout the desert ecosystems of southern Mexico in association with various species of ants.