Sarax sinensis Wu, Zhu, Li & He, 2022

Wu, Shi-Yang, Zhu, Xiao-Yu, Liu, Yi-Jiao, Miranda, Gustavo Silva, Román-Palacios, Cristian, Li, Zheng & He, Zhu-Qing, 2022, A new species of whip spider, Sarax sinensis sp. nov., from Fujian, China (Arachnida: Amblypygi: Charinidae), Zootaxa 5162 (4), pp. 397-409 : 402-405

Sarax sinensis Wu, Zhu, Li & He sp. nov.

Figs. 4–9

Holotype. ECNU-IV-0004, adult male, Fuzhou City , Fujian Province, China, 26.03 °N, 119.30 °E, 39m a.s.l., Yu Lin-rui and Wang Ya-fei leg.

Paratype. All immature, unknown sex, same data as holotype, ECNU-IV-0003, ECNU-IV-0005, ECNU-IV-0006, ECNU-IV-0007.

Carapace. Seven frontal setae; frontal process triangular. Small granules densely and evenly scattered between ocular triads and among sulci. Median eyes and median ocular tubercle well developed; pair of setae on median ocular tubercle; lateral eyes well developed, pale. Three pairs of furrows reach the middle line; fovea oval ( Figs. 4A , 5A ).

Sternum. Three well-sclerotized segments. Tritosternum with round base, elongated and conical, ten setae on the basal region. Pair of setae close to apical setae, in the middle of the projection. Tetrasternum rounded, convex, with a pair of setae. Pentasternum rounded, convex, smaller than tetrasternum, with a pair of setae ( Fig. 6A ).

Abdomen. Flat and oblong. Many tiny punctuations evenly distributed on the surface, smaller than those on the carapace. Genital operculum with 37 setae randomly on the surface. Ventral sac presents. Abdomen narrower than the carapace ( Figs. 4A, 4B , 5B ).

Chelicera. Dorsum covered with many fine setae and three frontal setae (ectal view). Cheliceral furrow with four internal teeth. First distal tooth (upper) bifid; Ia and Ib subequal. Second tooth subequal to the first and third ones. Fourth tooth longest. Claw with eight denticles (mesal view) ( Figs. 6B, 6C ).

Pedipalp. Coxa: Fourteen setae encircle around the carina. Many fine setae on the ventral surface and denser near the ventral mesal region. Trochanter: many rufous setae on antero-dorsal side. Two small subequal ventral spines. Ventral apophysis small and setiform. Femur: finely granulated. Four dorsal spines, decreasing in length. One prominent setiferous tubercle between spine I and proximal margin. Four ventral spines, decreasing in length. Patella: finely granulated. Four dorsal spines. Prominent spine distal to spine I. Three setae on spine I. One seta on spine II. One short secondary spine between spine III and IV. Spine II three-fourths of spine I, spine III half of spine II, spine IV one-third of spine III. Three ventral spines, decreasing in length. Spine II two-thirds of spine I, and spine III half of spine II. Many setae on posterodorsal side, opposite to spine series. Tibia: two large dorsal spines present with many rufous setae near the bottom of the spine, one ventral spine. Many setae on the posterodorsal side, opposite to spines. Tarsus: two dorsal spines. Distal spine long, about one-third length of tarsus, proximal spine one-third length of the distal spine. Many long setae randomly distributed throughout the segment. Ventral row of cleaning organ with 25–30 setae ( Figs. 7A, 7B, 7D , 8B, 8C ).

Legs. All setose. Leg I elongated, 20 segments in tibia, 34–35 segments in tarsus. Basitibia IV with three pseudo-articles. Walking-leg tarsi with arolium. Distitibia IV trichobothria sc and sf series each with 5 trichobothria ( Figs. 7C , 8A, 8D ).

Color pattern. Pedipalp, carapace, abdomen, and legs mostly dark gray. The margin of carapace pinkish. Spines on the pedipalp black, tips light red. All setae brown ( Figs. 4A, 4B ).

Male genitalia. Paired lobes covered ventrally by genital operculum. LoL1 with 2 grooves and small spines at the base. LoL2 larger than LoL1 with many small spiculate projections. LoD cuspid with smooth surface at the tip. The surface of LoD base with many spiniform projections, larger than those of LoL2. Spiniform projections wider and 3-5 projections share a base near the bottom of LoD. Surface of Fi has a large smooth area with about fifteen grooves parallel with each other diagonally ( Fig. 9 ).

Measurements: see Table 2 .

Distribution. China (Fujian)

Etymology. The species is named after China. This is the first Amblypygi species found in the mainland of China. The other two species described from China are restricted to islands.

Natural History: Sarax sinensis sp. nov. is found in Fuzhou city of Fujian, China. They inhabit abandoned houses and hide under rocks and crevices on walls. The range of their habitats remains to be studied. This species is oviparous, and the female carries the egg sac that contains 12– 13 eggs. The egg sac has a transparent membrane that encircles spherical white eggs. During postembryonic growth, pedipalps develop allometrically .

Phylogenetic position. Higher-level phylogenetic relationships were equivalent between our study and the trees presented in both Miranda et al. (2021) and Zhu et al. (2021; Figure 3 ). The monophyly of major groups including the Charinidae (bootstrap=93%; posterior probability [pp hereafter]=0.94), Sarax (bootstrap=99%; pp=0.98) and Charinus (bootstrap=99%; pp=1) were highly supported as found in Miranda et al. (2021). Phylogenetic relationships between congeneric species in Weygoldtia and Charinus were also similar between this study and the phylogenetic trees presented in Zhu et al. (2021), and Miranda et al. (2021). Specifically, the reciprocal monophyly of the samples analyzed in this study and assigned to Sarax sinensis sp. nov. was recovered and highly supported (bootstrap=100%; pp=1). Furthermore, Sarax sinensis sp. nov. is consistently found nested within Sarax . We recovered Sarax ioanniticus as the sister species to Sarax sinensis sp. nov. in both Bayesian and maximum likelihood inference frameworks (bootstrap=83%; pp=0.97).

Figures

FIGURE 3. Phylogenetic relationships of charinid whip spiders highlighting the phylogenetic position of Sarax sinensis sp. nov. (boldfaced). Phylogenetic analysis inferred under maximum likelihood (A) and Bayesian inference (B) based on the molecular dataset of Miranda et al. (2021) and Zhu et al. (2021). Support values are based on 1,000 bootstrap replicates (A) and posterior probabilities (B; 1 million generations and 10% post-burnin). Branch lengths in substitutions per site (see scale under trees). Only relationships between species of Charinidae are shown. Other Amblypygi analyzed as outgroups but not shown in the figure are Damon diadema Simon 1876, Phrynus longipes Pocock 1894, Baalrog sbordonii Brignoli 1973, and Mastigoproctus giganteus Lucas 1835. Blue represents Weygoldtia; Green represents Charinus; Grey represents Sarax of the West Asia Clade; Pink represents Sarax of the East Asia Clade.

FIGURE 4. Sarax sinensis sp. nov. from Fujian, China. Holotype, ECNU-IV-0004, male. A: Dorsal; B: Ventral.

FIGURE 5. Sarax sinensis sp. nov. A: Frontal process of holotype, ECNU-IV-0004; B: Ventral sac of paratype ECNU-IV- 0006.

FIGURE 6. Sarax sinensis sp. nov. Holotype, ECNU-IV-0004, male. A: Sternum, ventral view; B: Chelicera, mesal view; C: Chelicera, ectal view.

FIGURE 7. Sarax sinensis sp. nov. Holotype, ECNU-IV-0004, male. A: Pedipalp, ventral view; B: Pedipalp, dorsal view; C: Walking-leg tarsi with arolium, ventral view; D: Pedipalp ventral apophysis, ventral view.

FIGURE 8. Sarax sinensis sp. nov. Holotype, ECNU-IV-0004, male. A: Trichobothria on distitibia IV; B: Pedipalp tarsus and claw, dorsal view; C: Pedipalp tarsus and claw, ventral view; D: Leg I tibia and tarsus of an adult male, dorsal.

FIGURE 9. Male gonopod of Sarax sinensis sp. nov. from Fuzhou, China. Holotype, ECNU-IV-0004, male. A: Dorsal view; B: Detail of ornamentation of LoL1 and LOL2; C: Detail of ornamentation of LoD; D: Detail of ornamentation of Fi (Details in Terminologies).