Ephippiochthonius cf. romanicus ( Beier, 1935 )

Novák, János, 2024, An updated checklist for the pseudoscorpion fauna of Hungary (Arachnida: Pseudoscorpiones), Zootaxa 5433 (1), pp. 51-95 : 56

Ephippiochthonius cf. romanicus ( Beier, 1935)

Chthonius (Ephippiochthonius) romanicus Beier, 1935: 2–3 ; Novák 2020: 116–118; WPC 2023.

Occurrence: Greece, Hungary, Iran, Romania, Turkey (WPC 2023).

Known localities in Hungary: Tatabánya; Tenkes Hill ( Novák 2020).

New data: nil.

Habitat preference: unknown.

Remarks: the species was described by Beier (1935) from Comana and from ”La Forêt de Cãscioare”, VlaŞca county, Romania, and it was recently reported from western Hungary ( Novák 2020). Ephippiochthonius romanicus was recently transferred to the genus Occidenchthonius Zaragoza 2017 based on having ph3 seta on chelal hand, forming the combination O. romanicus ( Turbanov & Kolesnikov 2023) . However, the presence of this character was concluded based on linedraws in the original description and in the author’s subsequent redescriptions ( Beier 1935, 1963a), and no specimens of the original type material, nor topotypical material were investigated ( Turbanov & Kolesnikov 2023). At the time of these old descriptions, the characters differentiating Ephippiochthonius and Occidenchthonius (e.g. the presence or absence of ph3 seta of chelal hand, chelal movable finger lyrifissures, chelal hand apodeme ip) were not considered during species descriptions as their use was introduced only recently ( Zaragoza 2017). Furthermore, in the same literature ( Beier 1963a) which was used for the transfer, there are severeal other species assigned to Ephippiochthonius and depicted as possessing seta ph3 on their chelal hand, which shall be one of the main differentiating characters between the two genera ( Ephippiochthonius lacks it), but contradicting to this, in their modern redescription they lack this seta and they are retained in the genus Ephippiochthonius — such species are e.g. Ephippiochthonius tetrachelatus ( Preyssler, 1790) and E. nanus Beier, 1953 ( Zaragoza 2017). Furthermore, some species were even depicted with having only two setae in the basal part of chelal hand, e.g. E. hiberus Beier, 1930 and E. pieltaini Beier, 1930 ( Beier, 1963a). The genus Globochthonius Finnegan, 1932 shares with Occidenchthonius the character of having ph3 on basal part of chelal hand. However, in Beier’s (1963a) work, several Globochthonius species were illustrated wiht a chelal hand lacking this seta—e.g. G. simplex Beier, 1939 ; G. spelaeophilus spelaeophilus (Hadži, 1930) ; G. cavernicola (Beier, 1938) . Consequently, the presence/absence of chelal hand seta ph3 on Beier’s old drawings should be handled cautiously. Especieally, because an other important differentiating character, the presence of ip apodeme in Ephippiochthonius (and its absence in Occidenchthonius ) was neither used at that time, and usually it was not directly presented in old linedraws. Considering all these information, I prefer using the name Ephippiochthonius romanicus until the mentioned characteristics of the type material will be investigated. However, as I neither had the opportunity to study these types, and there is no modern description of E. romanicus and therefore we do not know all of its today used morphological characteristics, I would like to modify the attribution of the Hungarian specimens as Ephippiochthonius cf. romanicus .