EUROPEAN ARACHNOLOGY 2003 (LOGUNOV D.V. & PENNEY D. eds.), pp. 107125. © ARTHROPODA SELECTA (Special Issue No.1, 2004). ISSN 0136-006X (Proceedings of the 21st European Colloquium of Arachnology, St.-Petersburg, 49 August 2003) A study of the character palpal claw in the spider subfamily Heteropodinae (Araneae: Sparassidae) Èçó÷åíèå ïðèçíàêà êîãîòü ïàëüïû ó ïàóêîâ ïîäñåìåéñòâà Heteropodinae (Araneae: Sparassidae) P. J ÄGER Forschungsinstitut Senckenberg, Senckenberganlage 25, D60325 Frankfurt am Main, Germany. email:
[email protected] ABSTRACT. The palpal claw is evaluated as a taxonomic character for 42 species of the spider family Sparassidae and investigated in 48 other spider families for comparative purposes. A pectinate claw appears to be synapomorphic for all Araneae. Elongated teeth and the egg-sac carrying behaviour of the Heteropodinae seem to represent a synapomorphy for this subfamily, thus results of former systematic analyses are supported. One of the Heteropodinae genera, Sinopoda, displays variable character states. According to ontogenetic patterns, shorter palpal claw teeth and the absence of egg-sac carrying behaviour may be secondarily reduced within this genus. Based on the idea of evolutionary efficiency, a functional correlation between the morphological character (elongated palpal claw teeth) and egg-sac carrying behaviour is hypothesized. The palpal claw with its sub-characters is considered to be of high analytical systematic significance, but may also give important hints for taxonomy and phylogenetics. Results from a zoogeographical approach suggest that the sister-groups of Heteropodinae lineages are to be found in Madagascar and east Africa and that Heteropodinae, as defined in the present sense, represents a polyphyletic group.