38 Cor Vink and Stephen Thorpe A new record of the Australian wolf spider Artoriopsis expolita (L. Koch, 1877) (Araneae: Lycosidae) in New Zealand Cor J. Vink1,2 and Stephen Thorpe3 1Canterbury Museum, Rolleston Avenue, Christchurch 8013 2Entomology Research Museum, PO Box 85084, Lincoln University, Lincoln 7647 3School of Biological Sciences, University of Auckland, Private Bag 92019, Auckland 1142 Corresponding author: Cor J. Vink, Canterbury Museum, Rolleston Avenue, Christchurch 8013 Email: [email protected] Artoriopsis is an Australian genus of wolf spiders (Lycosidae) that includes Artoriopsis expolita (L. Koch, 1877) and six other species (Framenau 2007). In 2010, a male specimen of A. expolita was caught in a pitfall trap at Shakespear Regional Park, which is at the tip of the Whangaparaoa Peninsula in the Auckland Region. The pitfall trap was part of an invertebrate survey by the Auckland Council. The specimen was identified using Framenau (2007). Artoriopsis expolita is the same size and looks superficially like Anoteropsis hilaris (L. Koch, 1877), which was also found at Shakespear Regional Park. Artoriopsis expolita can be differentiated from A. hilaris and all other New Zealand lycosids by the wide median and marginal bands on the carapace, the shape of the tegular apophysis of the male pedipalp and the large plate covering the atrium of the epigyne (Framenau 2007). A photo of the specimen can be seen at http://species.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Artoriopsis_expolita.jpg. The specimen has been deposited in the Lincoln University Entomology Research Museum (LUNZ00012877). DNA was extracted non-destructively (Paquin & Vink 2009) from two legs using a ZR Genomic DNA™-Tissue MiniPrep kit (Zymo Research). A fragment of the mitochondrial gene cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 The Weta 45:38-41 39 (COI) was amplified and sequenced using the primer combination C1-J- 1718-spider (5'-GGNGGATTTGGAAATTGRTTRGTTCC-3') (Vink et al. 2005) plus C1-N-2776-spider (5'-GGATAATCAGAATANCGNCGAGG- 3') (Vink et al. 2005). PCR amplification was performed using i-StarTaq™ DNA Polymerase (iNtRON Biotechnology) in a Mastercycler® (Eppendorf) thermocycler with a cycling profile of 35 cycles of 94 ºC denaturation (30 s), 48 °C annealing (30 s), 72 ºC extension (1 min) with an initial denaturation of 3 min and a final extension of 5 min. Excess primers and salts were removed from the resulting double-stranded DNA using a DNA Clean & Concentrator™ Kit (Zymo Research). Purified PCR fragments of DNA were sequenced in both directions at Macrogen (Seoul). The resulting sequence was deposited at GenBank (ww.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/genbank/) and the accession number is KF206133. Our sequence was compared to existing A. expolita COI sequences (Hosseini et al. 2007, Juen et al. 2012 – GenBank accession numbers DQ295873 and JQ240199, respectively) using Sequencher 5.1 (Gene Codes Corporation). Our sequence completely overlapped with both published sequences, which both came from specimens collected in South Australia, and differed by only two (0.4%) and three (0.5%) nucleotides, respectively, which further confirmed our identification. The specimen of A. expolita from Shakespear Regional Park was in good condition, which suggests that it matured there and may come from a resident population. However, there were no other A. expolita found at that location and it is possible that the specimen ballooned from Australia as an immature. In Australia, A. expolita is found in the southeast (including Tasmania) and southwest (Framenau 2007), which have similar climates to Auckland (Peacock & Worner 2006). Artoriopsis expolita is a common spider in Australia and is found in open, moderately moist environments, such as waterways, pasture, suburban lawns and croplands (Framenau 2007, Hosseini et al. 2007). Most adult A. expolita have been found between October and January; females with eggsacs were found in November and December and females carrying spiderlings in December and January (Framenau 2007). Further collecting trips to Shakespear Regional Park using the collecting techniques in Vink (2002: 11) may reveal whether A. expolita has established in New Zealand. Two other introduced species of Lycosidae (wolf spiders) are found in New Zealand; Hogna crispipes (L. Koch, 1877) 40 Cor Vink and Stephen Thorpe and Venatrix konei (Berland, 1924), and were recorded as Geolycosa tongatabuensis (Strand, 1911) and Venatrix goyderi (Hickman, 1944), respectively, by Vink (2002). Both species are found in the north of the North Island (Vink 2002), Australia and some South Pacific Islands (Framenau & Vink 2001, Vink 2002, Framenau 2006, Framenau et al. 2006). Acknowledgements DNA extraction and PCR was performed at AgResearch Lincoln. Sequencing was funded by the Better Border Biosecurity (www.b3nz.org<http://www.b3nz.org>) programme. References Framenau VW. 2006. The wolf spider genus Venatrix Roewer: new species, synonymies and generic transfers (Araneae, Lycosidae). Records of the Western Australian Museum 23: 145-166. Framenau VW. 2007. Revision of the new Australian genus Artoriopsis in a new subfamily of wolf spiders, Artoriinae (Araneae: Lycosidae). Zootaxa 1391: 1-34. Framenau VW, Gotch TB, Austin AD. 2006. The wolf spiders of artesian springs in arid South Australia, with a revalidation of Tetralycosa (Araneae, Lycosidae). Journal of Arachnology 34: 1-36. Framenau VW, Vink CJ. 2001. Revision of the wolf spider genus Venatrix Roewer (Araneae: Lycosidae). Invertebrate Taxonomy 15: 927-970. Hosseini R, Keller MA, Schmidt O, Framenau VW. 2007. Molecular identification of wolf spiders (Araneae: Lycosidae) by multiplex polymerase chain reaction. Biological Control 40: 128-135. Juen A, Hogendoorn K, Ma G, Schmidt O, Keller MA. 2012. Analysing the diets of invertebrate predators using terminal restriction fragments. Journal of Pest Science 85: 89-100. Paquin P, Vink CJ. 2009. Testing compatibility between molecular and morphological techniques for arthropod systematics: a minimally destructive DNA extraction method that preserves morphological integrity, The Weta 45:38-41 41 and the effect of lactic acid on DNA quality. Journal of Insect Conservation 13: 453-457. Peacock L, Worner S. 2006. Using analogous climates and global insect distribution data to identify potential sources of new invasive insect pests in New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Zoology 33: 141-145. Vink CJ. 2002. Lycosidae (Arachnida: Araneae). Fauna of New Zealand 44: 1-94. Vink CJ, Thomas SM, Paquin P, Hayashi CY, Hedin M. 2005. The effects of preservatives and temperatures on arachnid DNA. Invertebrate Systematics 19: 99-10 Erratum. It was very quickly pointed out that the cover picture in the last issue (Vol. 44, December 2012) was in fact of Vanessa itea. Thanks to George Gibbs for bringing this to our attention. .