While the islands of Hawaii are considered a paradise to study the interplay between ecology and evolution, colonization of caves by spiders has received surprisingly little attention. Thanks to an extensive dataset already gathered on the field and in Museum collections, we started analyzing the relationships between above- and below-ground species of wolf spiders. This project, through a strong collaboration between Rennes and Berkeley, aims at understanding why colonization of Hawaiian caves repeatedly occurred, and how this was translated in terms of morphological adaptations (mainly eye loss or reduction).
UC PI:
Rosemary Gillespie
Environmental Science, Policy and Management, UC Berkeley
France PI:
Julien Pétillon
Observatoire des Sciences de l'Univers de Rennes (OSUR), Université de Rennes 1