The evolutionary process of the unique web architectures of spiders of the sub-family Cyrtarachninae, which includes the triangular web weaver, bolas spider, and webless spider, is thought to be derived from reduction of orbicular 'spanning-thread webs' resembling ordinal orb webs. A molecular phylogenetic analysis was conducted to explore this hypothesis using orbicular web spiders Cyrtarachne, Paraplectana, Poecilopachys, triangular web spider Pasilobus, bolas spiders Ordgarius and Mastophora, and webless spider Celaenia. The phylogeny inferred from partial sequences of mt-COI, nuclear 18S-rRNA and 28S-rRNA showed that the common ancestor of these spiders diverged into two clades: a spanning-thread web clade and a bolas or webless clade. This finding suggests that the triangular web evolved by reduction of an orbicular spanning web, but that bolas spiders evolved in the early stage, which does not support the gradual web reduction hypothesis.
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