Two new cave-dwelling species of Tyrannochthonius Chamberlin 1929 (Pseudoscorpiones: Chthoniidae) from the Guizhou karst, China

Abstract

Two new troglomorphic pseudoscorpion species, Tyrannochthonius harveyi, sp. nov. and Tyrannochthonius zhai, sp. nov., are described from the dark zone of caves in the tower karst of the Guizhou Province in China. Both species are presently known only from single caves and are likely to have very restricted distribution ranges.

Four new species of cave-adapted pseudoscorpions (Pseudoscorpiones, Pseudotyrannochthoniidae) from Guizhou, China

“…They are usually eyeless and have a hypopigmented body cuticle and elongated body appendages. To date, 54 cave-dwelling pseudoscorpion species from four families (Atemnidae, Chernetidae, Chthoniidae, Neobisiidae) have been described from China (Schawaller 1995;Mahnert 2003Mahnert , 2009Mahnert and Li 2016;Gao et al 2017Gao et al , 2018Gao et al , 2020Li et al 2017Li et al , 2019Feng et al 2019Feng et al , 2020Zhang et al 2020;Li and Wang 2021;Hou et al 2022a, b;Li 2022;Xu et al 2022), including 12 species from Guizhou. No cavernicolous pseudotyrannochthoniid species have been reported from China yet.…”

Two new species of cave-adapted pseudoscorpions (Pseudoscorpiones, Chthoniidae) from Yunnan, China

“…nov. can be easily separated from T. akaleus by a smaller body size (1.67 vs. 2.10 mm in female), the teeth pattern on chelal fingers (intercalary teeth absent in T. pandus, but present in T. akaleus); from T. harveyi by the different setae number on the anterior and posterior margins of the carapace (T. pandus with 6 and 2 setae, respectively, but T. harveyi with 4 and 4 setae, respectively), the shape of the epistome (long and pointed in T. pandus, but rounded and inconspicuous in T. harveyi), the number of rallar blades (8 in T. pandus, but 6 in T. harveyi); and from T. zhai, T. chixingi and T. antridraconis by the number of setae on the anterior tergites (tergites I-III with 2 setae in T. pandus, but the other three with 4 setae). In addition, compared to the new species, T. zhai differs by the shorter body length (1.40 vs. 1.67 mm in female) and lacking an epistome; T. chixingi and T. antridraconis differs from the new species also by the presence of intercalary teeth on the fixed chelal finger (Mahnert 2009;Gao et al 2018;Gao et al 2020).…”

“…To date, 33 cave-dwelling pseudoscorpion species, representing three families (Chthoniidae, Neobisiidae, Chernetidae), have been described from China. Among them, eight species are known from Yunnan (Schawaller 1995;Mahnert 2003Mahnert , 2009Mahnert and Li 2016;Gao et al 2017;Li et al 2017;Gao et al 2018;Li et al 2019;Feng et al 2020;Gao et al 2020;Zhang et al 2020).…”

“…So far, nine species and one subspecies of this genus have been described from China, of which six are exclusively known from karst caves: T. akaelus Mahnert, 2009 from Sichuan, T. ganshuanensis Mahnert, 2009 from Sichuan and Hubei, T. antridraconis Mahnert, 2009 from Sichuan, T. chixingi Gao, Wynne & Zhang, 2018 from Guangxi, T. harveyi Gao, Zhang & Chen, 2020 and T. zhai Gao, Zhang & Chen, 2020 from Guizhou. All species are troglobites without eyes (Mahnert 2009;Gao et al 2018;Gao et al 2020;WPC 2022).…”

Description of four new species of the subgenus Tachycines (Gymnaeta) Adelung, 1902 (Orthoptera: Rhaphidophoridae) from caves in China and additional notes on some previously known species

“…In recent years, the diversity of cave species in China has attracted widespread attention, especially in studies on spiders, pseudoscorpions, beetles and millipedes (Tian et al 2017;Jiang et al 2018;Liu & Wynne 2019;Feng Z.G. et al 2020;Gao et al 2020;Zhao et al 2020;Ma et al 2020). The study of cave crickets from karstic areas in Southern China began with several biospeleological expeditions in the 1990s, organized by Chinese, French, Italian and Slovenian teams.…”