Description of the new species Chthonius (Ephippiochthonius) negarinae sp. nov. (Pseudoscorpiones: Chthoniidae) from Iran

Abstract

A new species, Chthonius (Ephippiochthonius) negarinae sp. nov., is described from Iran. In addition, illustrations and measurements are given.

Description of a new epigean species of the genus<I>Ephippiochthonius</I> (Pseudoscorpiones: Chthoniidae) from Russia

“…The family Chthoniidae Daday 1889 is poorly represented in the Caucasus, the Middle East and central Asia, and the genus Ephippiochthonius (Beier 1930) currently contains only seven named species from this area (Table 1) (Harvey 2013;Nassirkhani & Vafai 2015). In this contribution, a new pseudoscorpion species belonging to the genus Ephippiochthonius was discovered in soil of common yew trees, Taxus baccata, and evergreen trees, Buxus spp., locating in a yew-boxtree grove of the Caucasian State Nature Biosphere Reserve.…”

“…anatolicus (Beier 1969) Iran -Turkey E. iranicus (Beier 1971) Iran E. romanicus (Beier 1935) Greece -Iran -Romania -Turkey E. negarinae (Nassirkhani & Vafai 2015) E. sacer (Beier 1963) Iran Israel ly (Fig. 3); serrula exterior with 12-15 blades (♀♂); serrula interior with 9-10 blades (♀♂); fixed finger with 8-10 distinct teeth, basal teeth smaller than apical teeth (♀♂); movable finger with 6-8 teeth (♀♂), sub-apical tooth largest and situated separately from others, basal teeth very small, teeth become larger gradually from base to apical margin of finger (Fig.…”

“…Because of the presence of an isolated sub-apical tooth in the movable cheliceral finger, E. caucasicus n. sp. belongs to a small group of species defined by Gardini (2013), and subsequently Zaragoza (2017) containing E. rimicola (Mahnert 1993), E. aguileraorum (Carabajal Márquez, García Carrillo & Rodríguez Fernández, 2000), E. gonzalei Zaragoza 2017, and E. hiberus (Beier 1930) from Spain, E. lucanus (Callaini, 1984) and E. messapicus (Gardini 2013) from Italy, and as well as E. iranicus (Beier 1971) and E. negarinae (Nassirkhani & Vafai 2015) from Iran. Unfortunately, the presence/absence of an isolated sub-apical tooth in the movable cheliceral finger was not described for the other species of the group reported from the Middle East, central Asia and the adjacent areas, e.g.…”

The pseudoscorpions of the Caucasian Sphagnum bogs: part II. Description of Ephippiochthonius juliae sp.n. from Georgia, with remarks on the taxonomic status of some Caucasian species of the genus Ephippiochthonius Beier, 1930 (Arachnida: Pseudoscorpiones: Chthoniidae)

“…It can be clearly separated from the epigean E. caucasicus (described from Sochi, 1. [Preyssler, 1790], it has been repeatedly shown that this supposedly most widely distributed and frequently recorded species among the pseudoscorpions (see e.g, Harvey [1991]; WPC [2022]) is actually a complex of species, the E. tetrachelatus-group (see Gardini [2013]), with many new species described recently [Gardini, 2013;Zaragoza, 2017;Nassirkhani, Shoushtari, 2015;Nassirkhani et al, 2019;Kolesnikov et al, 2019;Turbanov, Kolesnikov, 2021; this study]. In turn, Gardini [2013] redescribed E. fuscimanus based on the type (Italy, Trentino, Lavarone) [Simon, 1900] and other material from Italy.…”

Pseudoscorpions of Israel: Annotated Checklist and Key, with New Records of Two Families (Arachnida: Pseudoscorpiones)

“…The third pseudoscorpion species, Paramenthus shulovi, belongs to one of the smallest pseudoscorpion families (by means of species richness), which is found in xeric habitats, Menthidae, comprising five genera. Paramenthus shulovi was the first member of the family to be found outside America; but, in 2007, Mahnert described from Socotra Island, Yemen, a second Paramenthus species, which was later also found in south Iran [39,40]. Thus, the genus Paramenthus is assumed to be Paleoeremic and of Afrotropical origin.…”