Filogeografía, historia demográfica y modelos de distribución en una araña lobo de tela en embudo de los pastizales del sur de Sudamérica: implicancias para sus estrategias de conservación

The accelerated extinction of species due to climate change and habitat loss highlights the need to gain a deeper understanding of genetic diversity, populationstructure and species distribution as fundamental inputs to define conservationstrategies.2. Unlike the wandering habit characteristic of its family, Aglaoctenus lagotis is a webbuilder South American wolf spider. It has been declared a priority species for conservation in Uruguay. Recent evidence supports the existence of distinct lineageswithin what is currently defined as this species. Form I is distributed exclusively inUruguay and strictly inhabits grasslands, an environment in constant reduction andthreat.3. This work aimed to analyse the genetic diversity and population structure of Form Iof A. lagotis, as well as understand how its distributional dynamics might shift inresponse to future climate change scenarios.4. Analysis of a fragment of the mitochondrial gene cox1 and nuclear intron tif5Arevealed a pattern of high connectivity between localities, absence of genetic structuring and evidence of a recent population expansion process. Models of potentialfuture distribution show a drastic reduction in the distribution of the species underdifferent climate change scenarios.5. Integrating the areas of greatest genetic diversity with those that will remain climatically stable allows for the identification of areas to prioritise in conservationefforts.6. This approach provides key knowledge regarding the evolutionary history of thespecies and enables the detection of factors that will be influencing its viability.