Dissecting a Geographical Colourful Tapestry: Phylogeography of the Colour Polymorphic Spider Gasteracantha cancriformis

Figure 1

Phenotypic variation across the distribution of Gasteracantha cancriformis. There are at least 20 phenotypes which vary in their dorsal coloration and length and/or number of spines on the abdomen (detailed in Table S4 and Figure S10-S13). Colours represent geographical regions, green: East Andes (EA), red: West Andes (WE), blue: Dry Pacific coast of Perú and Ecuador (DP), yellow: Caribbean islands (C), and purple: Galapagos Islands (G). Colour frames show the phenotypic diversity for each geographical region. The dots above morphs that symbolize that they are also found in other geographical regions, and the colours of the dots are coded as above. Dots within the map correspond to locations where we collected genetic and phenotypic information. Stars are the sites with published phenotypic information for the species [17–19].