The whip spider family Charinidae Quintero, 1986 is the most speciose and widely distributed in the arachnid order Amblypygi Thorell, 1883. It comprises three genera and 95 species distributed across all tropical continents and the eastern Mediterranean. Despite recent advances in the taxonomy of the family, a global revision of all its species, necessary to advance understanding of its systematics, biogeography and evolution, has never been conducted. In the present contribution, the family is revised in its entirety for the first time, including all previous names and 33 new species, 24 in the genus Charinus Simon, 1892: C. alagoanus sp. nov., C. apiaca sp. nov., C. carinae sp. nov., C. carioca sp. nov., C. carvalhoi sp. nov., C. cearensis sp. nov., C. diamantinus sp. nov., C. euclidesi sp. nov., C. goitaca sp. nov., C. guayaquil sp. nov., C. imperialis sp. nov., C. loko sp. nov., C. magalhaesi sp. nov., C. miskito sp. nov., C. mocoa sp. nov., C. monasticus sp. nov., C. palikur sp. nov., C. perquerens sp. nov., C. puri sp. nov., C. renneri sp. nov., C. sooretama sp. nov., C. souzai sp. nov., C. susuwa sp. nov., C. una sp. nov.; eight in the genus Sarax Simon, 1892: S. bilua sp. nov., S. dunni sp. nov., S. gravelyi sp. nov., S. indochinensis sp. nov., S. lembeh sp. nov., S. palau sp. nov., S. rahmadii sp. nov., S. tiomanensis sp. nov.; and one in the genus Weygoldtia Miranda et al., 2018: W. consonensis sp. nov. Taxonomic keys to the 132 species (excluding four nomina dubia) are presented and several taxonomic rearrangements implemented. Four subspecies are elevated to species level: Charinus cavernicolus Weygoldt, 2006, C. elegans Weygoldt, 2006, C. longipes Weygoldt, 2006, and Sarax bispinosus (Nair, 1934). Sarax batuensis Roewer, 1962 is removed from synonymy with Sarax buxtoni (Gravely, 1915) and S. buxtoni newly synonymized with Sarax rimosus (Simon, 1901). Stygophrynus moultoni Gravely, 1915 is transferred to Sarax, resulting in Sarax moultoni (Gravely, 1915) comb. nov. Ten species are transferred from Charinus to Sarax, resulting in new combinations: S. abbatei (Delle Cave, 1986) comb. nov., S. bengalensis (Gravely, 1911) comb. nov., S. dhofarensis (Weygoldt, Pohl & Polak, 2002) comb. nov., S. ioanniticus (Kritscher, 1959) comb. nov., S. israelensis (Miranda et al., 2016) comb. nov., S. omanensis (Delle Cave, Gardner & Weygoldt, 2009) comb. nov., S. pakistanus (Weygoldt, 2005) comb. nov., S. seychellarum (Kraepelin, 1898) comb. nov., S. socotranus (Weygoldt, Pohl & Polak, 2002) comb. nov. and S. stygochthobius (Weygoldt & Van Damme, 2004) comb. nov.
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Phylogeny and biogeography of the pantropical whip spider family Charinidae (Arachnida: Amblypygi)
Abstract The present contribution addresses the phylogeny and biogeography of the pantropical whip spider family Charinidae Quintero, 1986, the most species-rich in the arachnid order Amblypygi Thorell, 1883, based on morphology and multilocus DNA sequences, analysed simultaneously using parsimony, maximum likelihood and Bayesian inference. The morphological matrix comprises 138 characters, scored for four outgroup taxa and 103 ingroup terminals representing all genera and 64% of the species of Charinidae. The multilocus dataset comprises sequences from two nuclear and three mitochondrial gene loci for four outgroup taxa and 48 ingroup representing 30 (23%) taxa of Charinidae. Charinidae are monophyletic, with Weygoldtia Miranda et al., 2018 sister to a monophyletic group comprising Charinus Simon, 1892 and Sarax Simon, 1892, neither of which are reciprocally monophyletic. Charinidae diverged from other amblypygid families in the Late Carboniferous, c. 318 Mya, on the supercontinent Pangaea. Weygoldtia diverged from the common ancestor of Charinus and Sarax during the Late Permian, c. 257 Mya, when changes in climate reduced tropical forests. The divergence of Charinus and Sarax coincides with the fragmentation of Pangaea, c. 216 Mya. Sarax colonized South-East Asia via Australia. The charinid fauna of New Caledonia originated before the Oligocene, when the island separated from Australia, c. 80 Mya.
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- PAR ID:
- 10325006
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society
- Volume:
- 194
- Issue:
- 1
- ISSN:
- 0024-4082
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 136 to 180
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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