DOI: 10.5061/dryad.t76hdr87s
title: Species traits modulate ecological release in island red devil spiders (Araneae: Dysderidae)

description: Ecological release, defined as the expansion of range, habitat and/or
 resource usage by an organism following a reduction in competitors, is
 ubiquitous in oceanic islands. Species colonising recently formed islands,
 whose ancestors evolved in highly competitive environments, may experience
 relaxed selection because of reduced diversity of not only competitors,
 but also predators and parasites. Indeed, factors other than competition
 may also be involved in determining the species’ ability to expand their
 niche. Ecological specialization, for instance, has been frequently
 considered an irreversible change, preventing the reversal to more
 generalist states. Here, we integrate geometric morphometric methods,
 stable isotope analyses, and species distribution models using the spider
 genus Dysdera as a model organism to explore the implications of different
 cheliceral morphotypes related to different trophic adaptations on the
 species’ ability to undergo ecological release. Contrary to our
 expectations, species with morphotypes associated with a more specialized
 diet tend to expand their trophic niche, increase their spatial range, and
 modify their phenotype more similarly across the same area of morphospace
 when compared to generalist species. This outcome might be explained by
 their ability to feed on isopods, a prey typically rejected by most
 predators, along with other arthropods. This specialization may have been
 crucial in expanding their ecological niche compared to generalist
 species. Our study constitutes one of the first examples of using a
 multidisciplinary approach to better understand the effects of ecological
 release on colonizing species with supposed different trophic preferences.
description: # Species traits modulate ecological release in island red devil spiders
 (Araneae: Dysderidae)
 [https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.t76hdr87s](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.t76hdr87s) This are the scripts and datasets for the manuscript "Species traits modulate ecological release in island red devil spiders (Araneae: Dysderidae)" by Bellvert et al. ## Description of the data and file structure File List: ### File 1 : Data\_morph.bin Description: Geometric Morphometric data for the three different cheliceral views. The R package "geomorph" (Adams et al. 2021; Baken et al. 2021) is needed to read this file. Variables description: * GMM_data: Numerical. 3D array (p x n x k) for the morphometric variables. * code: Categorical. Categorical. Individual collection code deposited at the Centre de Recursos de Biodiversitat Animal of the Universitat de Barcelona, Spain and the Departamento de Zoología de la Universidad de La Laguna (DZUL), Tenerife, Spain. * island: Categorical. Island where the specimen was collected; "g" (La Gomera), "h" (El Hierro) and "p" (La Palma). * species: Categorical. Species acronym; "sil" (Dysdera silvatica), "gom" (Dysdera gomerensis) and "cal" (Dysdera calderensis). * sex: Categorical. Specimen sex; "M" (male) and "F" (female). * sp_island: Categorical. Joined species and island columns. * is_type: Categorical. Indicates if the specimen island shows high or Low levels of interspecific competition. Other acronyms belong to species not analyzed in the present study. This data file was modified after Bellvert et al. (2023) ### File 2 Name: data\_isotops.txt Description: Codes, island of origin, sex, species names, localities and C and N signatures for all specimens used for the Stable Isotopes analyses. Variables description: * Isocode: Categorical. Individual isotopic extraction code. * Colcode: Categorical. Individual collection code deposited at the Centre de Recursos de Biodiversitat Animal of the Universitat de Barcelona, Spain. * spec: Categorical. Species acronym; "sil" (Dysdera silvatica), "gom" (Dysdera gomerensis) and "cal" (Dysdera calderensis). * island: Categorical. Island where the specimen was collected; "g" (La Gomera), "h" (El Hierro) and "p" (La Palma). * sex: Categorical. Specimen sex; "m" (male) and "f" (female). * pop: Categorical. Locality where the specimen was collected. * Medium: Categorical. Preservation method. * d15N: Numerical. Specimen Nitrogen signature. Relative variations of stable isotope ratios are expressed as per mil (‰) deviations from predefined reference scales. * d13c: Numerical. Specimen Carbon signature. Relative variations of stable isotope ratios are expressed as per mil (‰) deviations from predefined reference scales. * sp_pop: Categorical. Joined spec and pop columns. * sp_island: Categorical. Joined spec and island columns. ### File 3 Name: Data\_sp\_local.txt Description: Codes, island of origin, sex, species names, localities and coordinates for all specimens used for the niche modelling analyses. Variables description: * Collection.code: Categorical. Individual collection code deposited at the Centre de Recursos de Biodiversitat Animal of the Universitat de Barcelona, Spain and and the Departamento de Zoología de la Universidad de La Laguna (DZUL), Tenerife, Spain. * Collected.by: Categorical. Specimen collector. * DateCollected.Start.: Categorical. Specimen collection date. * Locality.Name: Categorical. Locality where the specimen was collected. * District: Categorical. District name where the specimen was collected. * State.Prov: Categorical. Island where the specimen was collected. * Country: Categorical. Autonomous community from Spain where the specimen was collected. * LocLatitude: Numerical. Specimen latitudinal coordinate. crs: +proj=longlat +datum=WGS84 * LocLongitude: Numerical. Specimen longitudinal coordinate. crs: +proj=longlat +datum=WGS84 * X.Species.Genus: Categorical. Specimen genus. * Species.groups: Categorical. Indicates if the specimen belongs to the Western (Tenerife, La Gomera, La Palma and El Hierro) or Eastern (Gran Canaria, Lanzarote and Fuerteventura) islands. In the present manuscript, only western species are represented. * SpeciesName: Categorical. Species name together with the island where the specimen was found; "g" (La Gomera), "h" (El Hierro) and "p" (La Palma). ## Code/Software R v 4.3.3 packages: ``` "Geomorph" "plyr" "dplyr" "dismo" "gam" "factoextra" "tidyr" "SIBER" "rgl" "gMOIP" "cxhull" ```