Central Texas is home to a diverse fauna of endemic species found in the karst areas along the Balcones Fault Line, the Edwards Aquifer region, and associated springs.  The fauna occurring in Bexar County experience especially high anthropogenic pressure due to urban sprawl and suburban development in and around San Antonio, one of the largest cities in the United States.  Among local fauna are numerous troglobitic spider species of the genus Cicurina Menge, 1871 (subgenus Cicurella Chamberlin and Ivie, 1940). Many species of this genus are thought to have small distributions and are often represented in museums and datasets by very few specimens.  Species taxonomy for this group has been defined primarily by differences in the reproductive anatomy of adult females, which are rare in comparison to the number of immature individuals found in the wild.  Prior studies have shown that non-morphologically identifiable immature specimens, in conjunction with adult morphology, aid in illuminating species distributions through incorporation of genetic data.  The phylogenetic assessment of the area’s diverse species of Cicurina, which currently includes three federally listed species (C. madla Gertsch, 1992, C. vespera Gertsch, 1992, and C. baronia Gertsch, 1992), can benefit from a statistical framework upon which to test species boundaries and identify priority areas for further investigations.  The species delimitation analyses reported herein provides an updated and expanded understanding of currently recognized species relationships and distributions.  Statistical support was obtained for many recognized species, but hypotheses invalidating some species are also proposed.  In addition, detections of potentially undescribed species only known from genetics of immature specimens are presented.  Finally, significant divergences within federally endangered species were also identified, and priorities for future research are suggested.

This dataset contains figures, sequence information, and tree files obtained from the analyses of COI data for 170 specimens in the cave spider genus Cicurina collected in Texas.