Amblyolpium dollfusi Simon, 1898

Hernández-Corral, Jesús, Zaragoza, Juan A. & Micó, Estefanía, 2018, New species of Pseudoscorpiones (Arachnida) from tree hollows in a Mediterranean oak forest in Spain, Zootaxa 4497 (2), pp. 201-225 : 208-211

Amblyolpium dollfusi Simon, 1898

( Figs 3 , 21‒25)

Material examined. Spain, Castilla y León Community, Salamanca province, La Bastida (WT), ♂ ( CEUA 00106312 ), 23.X.2012, leg. A. García-López, E. Micó & A. Ramírez-Hernández.

Description (Ƌ). Medium-sized, epigean species ( Fig. 3 ). Pale brown in colour in body and pedipalps. Pedipalps smooth in chelal hand, femur and patella weakly granulated paraxially, vestitural setae thin and acuminate.

Carapace (Fig. 21) distinctly longer than broad, widest at middle, smooth, with a weak medial furrow, basally desclerotized. Two pairs of prominent eyes with convex lenses, anterior pair lying slightly less than one diameter from anterior margin, separated by half their diameter from posterior eyes (distance to anterior margin 0.04 mm, diameter of eyes 0.05‒0.055, separation between eyes 0.025). Chaetotaxy 4:6:6:6:4 (26). Four microlyrifissures in prozone, six in metazone.

Chelicera (Fig. 22) with 5 setae on hand and one (gl) on movable finger, 0.88 from base. Lamina exterior absent. Galea 0.038 mm long, with 3 apical and 1 medial ramus; rallum with 4 blades, distal blade with 2 teeth in distal half, other blades smooth, basal blade shorter than other three, which are of approximately the same length; serrula exterior with 17 blades, serrula interior with approximately 14 blades. Fixed finger with 8 teeth, not reaching to base, distal 4 very tiny, the others median in size; movable finger with 2 subapical rounded tubercles, apex weakly bifurcate.

Tergites I‒X medially divided, segment XI undivided; chaetotaxy of entire tergites 7:8:8:7:8:8:8:8:8:10(4TS):6(4TS):2. Each tergite with two lateromedial and two discal lyrifissures. Male genital area with 9 setae in two rows on sternite II, 2 in medial row, 7 in marginal row; genital opening with 2+2 internal setae. Chaetotaxy of entire sternites III‒XII: 6:9:10:12(2DS):12(2DS):11:8:11(4TS):6(2TS):2; sternites I‒X with 2 medial and 2 lateral lyrifissures, XI with two lateral lyrifissures and 4 close to anal cone.

Pedipalpal coxa with 2 setae on manducatory process and 9 setae on the disk (apical seta very long), coxal setae I 7, II 7, III 5, IV 6.

Pedipalp (Figs 23‒25) mostly smooth, femur and patella weakly granulated paraxially. Most femoral setae lost, the differences in size of the areolae are insufficient to determine the presence of tactile setae. Chelal fingers with scattered glandular pores. Fixed chelal finger with 28, well developed, pointed teeth, inclined towards base, dental row reaching to base. Movable finger with 23 teeth, reaching to slightly distad of trichobothrium sb, basal half with teeth flattened, particularly the basalmost ones; sensillum pc level st; 3 lyrifissures present on both chelae, two in similar position to ma1 and ma2 ( Zaragoza 2017b), the other (ma3) more distal. Trichobothria as in Figs 24‒25; est - ist -it forming a close group, isb distinctly proximad of that group and slightly closer to ist than to ib; ist slightly proximad of est and distad of it; est proximad to t; st distinctly proximad to t, separated by 2.3‒2.5 external areolar diameters, distance between st and sb 3.4 times that between sb and b. Nodus ramosus of venom duct proximad of trichobothrium est in fixed finger, level with t in movable finger.

Claws of legs smooth. Arolia bifurcated, distinctly longer than claws. Leg IV basitarsus with a tactile setae close to base.

Measurements and ratios. Male holotype: Body 2.24. Carapace 0.74/0.53 (1.4). Chelicera 0.22/0.13 (1.8), movable finger 0.17. Pedipalp: trochanter 0.33/0.15 (2.2), femur 0.64/0.16 (4.1), patella 0.53/0.20 (2.7), hand+ 0.54/0.26 (2.0), hand - 0.47 (1.8), movable finger 0.52, chela+ 1.05/0.26 (4.0), chela - 0.98 (3.7); hand+/ movable finger 1.0, femur/movable finger 1.2, carapace/femur 1.2, femur/patella 1.2, hand+/patella 1.0, chela+/carapace, chela+/femur 1.7. Leg I: femur 0.27/0.11 (2.4), patella 0.17/0.10 (1.6), tibia 0.26/0.08 (3.5), basitarsus 0.11/0.06 (1.9), telotarsus 0.17/0.05 (3.3); ratio femur/patella 1.6, telotarsus/basitarsus 1.5. Leg IV: femur+patella 0.55/0.23 (2.4), tibia 0.38/0.12 (3.2), basitarsus 0.13/0.08 (1.8), telotarsus 0.21/0.06 (3.5); telotarsus/basitarsus 1.6.

Remarks. The genus Amblyolpium Simon, 1898 includes 15 extant and one extinct species, mainly distributed in Macaronesia, the Mediterranean region, Northern Africa, the Middle East, the Caribbean region, South America, Asia and Australasia ( Harvey 2013; Nassirkhani 2018). Following Nassirkhani’s (2018) key to the species of the genus, the Spanish specimen is placed with the species having trichobothrium ist distinctly separated from it, and est distinctly proximad of t, both characteristics shared with A. dollfusi Simon, 1898 . Nassirkhani (2018) states that A. dollfusi lacks a tactile seta on the basitarsus (metatarsus) of leg IV, but Lazzeroni’s (1970) figure contradicts that affirmation. At first sight, the Spanish specimen seemed to show some differences with respect to the syntypes of A dollfusi deposited in MNHN and examined by Lazzeroni (1970), such as the position of trichobothrium it relative to ist, st relative to t, and the ratios of the pedipalpal patella and femur/patella of leg I in males. Recent reexamination of those syntypes (Mark Judson, in litt.), has revealed that the distal trichobothrium of the internal series is ist and its position is lower than that of it, contrary to Lazzeroni’s (1970: fig. 3) drawing, the distance FIGURES 21–25. Amblyolpium dollfusi Simon, 1898 , male. 21, carapace and tergite I; 22, left chelicera; 23, left pedipalp, minus chela, dorsal view; 24, left chela, dorsal view; 25, left chelal fingers, antiaxial view. Abbreviations: gp, glandular pore; ma1–3, lyrifissures; pc, paired sensilla. between st and t varies between about 0.7 and 1.7 external areolar diameters and the ratios of pedipalpal patella and leg I are close to those of the Spanish specimen. Consequently, the specimen from Spain is assigned to A. dollfusi .

Schawaller (1981) considered that the trichobothrial pattern of isb -ist -it -est might show some intraspecific variability in A. dollfusi ; at least, position of it respect to isb and ist shows some variation, as observed in the syntypes (Mark Judson, in litt.). Also variability occurs in the position of st relative to t, these being either close together or well apart (cf. Lazzeroni 1970: fig. 3; Leclerc 1984: fig. 1; Schawaller 1981: fig. 6; this study). Schawaller (1981) and Dashdamirov (1999) have suggested that A. anatolicum and A. graecum Mahnert, 1976 might be synonyms of A. dollfusi , but no changes were made due to insufficient knowledge of variability.

Figures

FIGURES 2–6. Habitus of species from Salamanca province. 2. Neobisium hispanicum n. sp.; 3. Amblyolpium dollfusi Simon, 1898; 4. Beierochelifer peloponnesiacus (Beier, 1929); 5. Rhacochelifer gaeli n. sp.; 6, Rhacochelifer nonidezi n. sp.