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Jumping Spider Dances: sexual
selection helps give rise to new species
Because the formation of new species can take hundreds to thousands of
years, it can be very difficult to catch a species "in the act"
of splitting into new species. Researchers here at the University of Arizona,
however, have found just such a case of incipient speciation in a group
of jumping spiders that live on the mountains of southeastern Arizona.
These mountains are called the "sky islands" because they are
like islands of lush, wooded vegetation surrounded by a sea of arid desert.
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The mountain ranges in gray are home to the species Habronattus pugillis,
the subject of the study. Although the females are identical across the
different mountains, the males on each mountain range show striking differences
in coloration, ornamentation, and courtship displays.
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