Systematics of the "giant" Ricinulei (Ricinoididae: Ricinoides) of West Africa : with descriptions of five new species and comparative morphology of the male copulatory apparatus

Title Variants

Alternative: Systematics of West African "giant" Ricinulei

Related Titles

Series: Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, number 448

By

Botero-Trujillo, Ricardo , author

Sain, Colby E., , author
Prendini, Lorenzo , author

Type

Book

Material

Published material

Publication info

New York, NY, American Museum of Natural History, [2021]

Notes

"Issued April 5, 2021."

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The Ricinulei Thorell, 1876, or "hooded tick-spiders," are among the rarest and least studied arachnid orders. Ricinoides Ewing, 1929, the only Old World genus of extant ricinuleids, with 11 species described from tropical West Africa, is the most neglected of the three genera currently recognized. A lack of attention to the systematics of Ricinoides has created a disparity between its taxonomic diversity and that of the New World genera, Cryptocellus Westwood, 1874, and Pseudocellus Platnick, 1980, in which many new species have been described in recent decades. The present contribution provides a revised diagnosis of Ricinoides, which includes two new, putative synapomorphies for the genus and addresses the systematics and morphology of a group of West African species, which includes the world's largest ricinuleids and the type species of the genus. This group of nine species, referred to as the "giant" Ricinulei, shares a unique combination of characters, many of which appear to be unique to the group, and appears to be monophyletic. Four species of this group are redescribed, with revised diagnoses, based on reexamination of the type material: Ricinoi des afzelii (Thorell, 1892), from Sierra Leone; Ricinoides atewa Naskrecki, 2008, from Ghana; Ric inoides feae (Hansen, 1921), from Guinea-Bissau; and Ricinoides westermannii (Guérin-Méneville, 1838), from Togo. Five new species are described, raising the number of species in the genus to 16: Ricinoides eburneus, sp. nov., and Ricinoides taii, sp. nov., from Côte d'Ivoire; Ricinoides iita, sp. nov., from Nigeria; Ricinoides kakum, sp. nov., from Ghana; and Ricinoides nzerekorensis, sp. nov., from Guinea. Comparative illustrations of the adult morphology are presented for all nine species. The male copulatory apparatus is described and illustrated in detail, and new terminology and characters presented. The female spermathecae are described and illustrated for six species in which the females are known, representing the first illustrated comparison of these structures in African ricinuleids. Geographical distribution records are revised and updated for the different species, and their distributions mapped.

Subjects

Africa, West , Arachnida , Classification , Ricinoides , Ricinulei , Spiders , West Africa

Call Number

QH1 .A4 no.448 2021

Language

English

Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1206/0003-0090.448.1.1
OCLC: 1244806589