Draculoides minae Abrams and Harvey, 2020

Abrams, Kym M., Huey, Joel A., Hillyer, Mia J., Didham, Raphael K. & Harvey, Mark S., 2020, A systematic revision of Draculoides (Schizomida: Hubbardiidae) of the Pilbara, Western Australia, Part I: the Western Pilbara, Zootaxa 4864 (1), pp. 1-75 : 59-61

Draculoides minae Abrams and Harvey , n. sp.

( Figs. 1–8 , 32–33 )

Zoobank Code: http://zoobank.org/NomenclaturalActs/ 8688217D-9FA8-4ECD-9A75-98A6651B30EA

Draculoides SCH 083: Abrams et al. 2019 MPE 106532: 8, fig. 2.

Material examined. Holotype female. AUSTRALIA: Western Australia: Middle Robe, Robe Valley, ca. 18 km ESE. of Pannawonica , 22°23’18”S, 116°15’11”E, 13–16 October 2008, troglofauna trap, J. Alexander (Biota Environmental Sciences, CWRC281 P4 T2–1 ) ( WAM T138570 ) (DNA: 12S, COI, 18S, 28S, ITS2 ).

Diagnosis. Males are unknown. Females of Draculoides minae differ from all other known Draculoides in their distinctive spermathecae, which have roughly rectangular, non-plicate lobes. Female flagellum is unknown. Draculoides minae can be diagnosed from all other Draculoides species that were sequenced at COI, 12S and ITS2 by the 50bp mini-barcodes shown in Figures 3 , 5 , and 7.

Description (adult female). Colour. Yellow-brown; propeltidium and pedipalps somewhat darker.

Cephalothorax. Propeltidium with 2+1 apical setae in a triangular formation on anterior process and 2 + 2 + 2 + 1 setae; eye spots absent. Mesopeltidia separated. Metapeltidium divided. Anterior sternum with 15 setae (including 2 sternapophysial setae); posterior sternum triangular with 8 setae.

Chelicera. Fixed finger with 2 large teeth plus 6 smaller teeth between these; proximal and distal teeth without small lateral teeth; membranous area between fixed and movable fingers with 3 large, lanceolate, terminally pilose setae (G1); G2 and G3 composed of 3 setae; internal face of chelicera with 5 short whip-like setae (G4); brush at base of fixed finger composed of 5 setae (G5A), each densely pilose in distal half and G5B composed of 7 setae; G6 with one seta; G7 composed of 4 setae. Movable finger serrula composed of ca.15 long lamellae, blunt guard tooth present subdistally; 1 small accessory tooth present.

Pedipalp. Without apophyses; trochanter with sharply produced ventro-distal extension, ventral margin with ca. 9 stout setae, without mesal spur; tarsus and tibia without spines; tarsal spur present; claw 0.64 × length of tarsus.

Legs. Tarsus I with 6 segments; baso-dorsal margin of femur IV produced at about a 90° angle.

Abdomen. Chaetotaxy of tergite I: 2 macrosetae + 4 microsetae (microsetae diagonal), tergite II: 2 macrosetae + 6 microsetae (microsetae in column), tergites III–IX: 2: 2: 2: 2: 2: 2: 2.

Female genitalia. Two pairs of spermathecae with roughly rectangular, equal-sized lobes, each pair connected basally before connection with bursa ( Fig. 33A ); sparsely covered with small pores mainly in stalk; gonopod rectangular and slightly elongated.

Flagellum. Unknown, collected without flagellum.

Dimensions (mm). Holotype female ( WAM T138570 ): Body length 4.88. Propeltidium 1.29/0.65. Chelicera 0.77. Flagellum missing. Pedipalp: trochanter 0.50, femur 0.58, patella 0.62, tibia 0.56, tarsus 0.21, claw 0.13, total excluding claw 2.46.

Remarks. Draculoides minae is only known from a single bore in the Middle Robe area ( Fig. 1D ).

Other names. WAM SCH083 ( Abrams et al., 2019).

Etymology. This species is named for the character Mina Harker in Bram Stoker’s book “Dracula.” Mina was temporarily made a vampire and instrumental in compiling the information to discover Dracula’s plans.

Figures

FIGURE 1. Map of an area of the Pilbara described as “West Pilbara” for the purposes of this study, showing the distribution of the named Draculoides species. Inset maps show species distributions in finer detail encompassing areas A: Warramboo, Mesas A, B and C and “BudgieBore”; B: Bungaroo, Mesas G, H, J, K and L; C: Cochrane and Jewell, Kens Bore, Cane and Upper Cane River, Trinity Bore and Catho Well, Mt. Stuart Station; D: Middle Robe, Robe Valley; E: Bungaroo South, West Pit, Buckland Hills and Dragon deposit.

FIGURE 2. Maximum Likelihood tree, based on the reduced dataset. See Methods for details. Each terminal represents a single species or OTU, with named species in bold. Clades are identified using dashed boxes and shaded boxes encompass the species discussed in this study. Nodes with bootstrap support <80 are not shown, except for the common ancestor of the Draculoides radiation.

FIGURE 3. COI mini-barcodes for all Draculoides species including the operational taxonomic units used in Abrams et al. (2019). This barcode is the maximally diagnostic 50 bp fragment of DNA. Genetic variation within species is shown using IUPAC Ambiguity Codes. See Methods for details. The position of the mini-barcode is reported relative to a specimen of Draculoides celatus (WAM T98698, GenBank number MG913085). The blue tree on the left groups minibarcodes which are most similar to each other but does not represent an accurate phylogeny. The coloured bases in the figure are those that differ from the consensus reference sequence.

FIGURE 4. Maximum Likelihood tree based on COI mini-barcodes (Fig. 3) showing similarity of mini-barcode sequences, relative to species identity. This phylogeny does not recover an accurate tree topology, and evolutionary relationships should not be inferred from this figure.

FIGURE 5. 12S mini-barcodes for all Draculoides species including the operational taxonomic units used in Abrams et al. (2019). This barcode is the maximally diagnostic 50 bp fragment of DNA. Genetic variation within species is shown using IUPAC Ambiguity Codes. See Methods for details. The position of the mini-barcode is reported relative to a specimen of Draculoides celatus (WAM T98698, GenBank number MG913012). The blue tree on the left groups minibarcodes which are most similar to each other but does not represent an accurate phylogeny. The coloured bases in the figure are those that differ from the consensus reference sequence.

FIGURE 6. Maximum Likelihood tree based on COI mini-barcodes (Fig. 5) showing similarity of mini-barcode sequences relative to species identity. This phylogeny does not recover an accurate tree topology, and evolutionary relationships should not be inferred from this figure.

FIGURE 7. ITS2 mini-barcodes for all Draculoides species including the operational taxonomic units used in Abrams et al. (2019). This barcode is the maximally diagnostic 50 bp fragment of DNA. Genetic variation within species is shown using IUPAC Ambiguity Codes. See Methods for details. The position of the mini-barcode is reported relative to a specimen of Draculoides celatus (WAM T98698, GenBank number MG913105). The blue tree on the left groups minibarcodes which are most similar to each other but does not represent an accurate phylogeny. The coloured bases in the figure are those that differ from the consensus reference sequence.

FIGURE 8. Maximum Likelihood tree based on ITS2 mini-barcodes (Fig. 7) showing similarity of mini-barcode sequences, relative to species identity. This phylogeny does not recover an accurate tree topology, and evolutionary relationships should not be inferred from this figure.

FIGURE 32. Draculoides minae sp. nov., holotype female (WAM T138570): A. Body, dorsal; B. Body, ventral; C. Body, lateral. The scale bar shown in image A is 1 mm and also applies to B and C.

FIGURE 33. Draculoides minae sp. nov., holotype female (WAM T138570): A. Spermathecae, ventral. Scale bar: 0.1 mm.