Pinero marmoreus, Teruel, 2018

Teruel, Rolando, 2018, Two new genera and a new species of schizomids (Arachnida: Schizomida) from Isla de Pinos, Cuba, Ecologica Montenegrina 19, pp. 33-49 : 42-46

Pinero marmoreus sp. n.

Figs. 3–5 , 7. Table I

Schizomus [in part: record from Sierra de Caballos]: Armas, 1977: 4–5, 8; fig. 2.

"Un género y una especies [sic] nuevos para la ciencia": Armas & Teruel in Armas & Alayón, 2014: 47.

Type data. CUBA: ISLA DE LA JUVENTUD SPECIAL MUNICIPALITY: Isla de Pinos: northern tip of Sierra Chiquita ; 10/July/2018; T. M. Rodríguez; under rock at cliff base; 1♂ heteromorphic holotype ( RTO) .

Additional material examined (not type). CUBA: ISLA DE LA JUVENTUD SPECIAL MUNICIPALITY: Isla de Pinos: northern tip of Sierra de Caballos ; C. M. Martínez-Muñoz; under log bark at cliff base; 1♂ heteromorphic ( IES). Note. This specimen is now missing from this collection .

Diagnosis. As for the genus (see above).

Description (heteromorphic male holotype). Coloration (fig. 3): immaculate brownish green, slightly darker on legs IV, abdomen and flagellum. Chelicerae and pedipalps with a subtle orange shade. Eyespots translucent, pale yellowish to whitish. Abdominal segment XII with posterodorsal process progressively darker distally, due to heavier sclerotization.

Pedipalp (figs. 3c): slightly elongate (1.48 times shorter than body). Trochanter spatulate (2.00 times longer than deep), compressed, straight, and apically not produced; dorsal margin shallowly convex and bare; ventral margin convex, with 8–10 variously sized setae (most of them short and spiniform); inner surface with three spiniform setae arranged into a curved row, essentially parallel to ventral margin, internal spur small and located near the ventral margin. Femur fusiform, stout (2.89 times longer than deep), straight and not bent basally; dorsal margin widely convex, with 5–6 pairs of short spiniform setae; ventral margin widely convex, with two parallel rows of short spiniform setae (three ventrointernals and four ventroexternals). Patella club-shaped, stout (3.44 times longer than deep) and weakly bent basally; dorsal margin smooth, with 16–18 variously sized, thin setae (most of them short); ventral margin very shallowly convex, with two rows of rigid, irregularly paired setae: the ventrointernal row spanning all along and with five setae (the three distalmost larger, thicker and darker), and the ventroexternal row restricted to distal half of the segment and with four setae (the subbasal and subdistal large, thick and dark). Tibia club-shaped, stout (2.93 times longer than deep), and not bent basally; dorsal margin with 8–10 variously sized setae, most of them sedose; ventral margin with three irregular rows of long, rigid setae all along: the ventrointernal row with five setae (some plumose or sinuose), the ventromedian row with 4–5 setae (some plumose or sinuose), and the ventroexternal row with five setae (the two distalmost much larger, thicker and darker). Tarsus slightly conical, elongate (2.78 times longer than deep), straight and densely covered with variously sized, sedose setae; apical spurs asymmetric (outer larger). Claw medium-sized, sharp, and shallowly curved.

Propeltidium (figs. 3a–b): with 1 + 1 apical and two pairs of dorsal setae. Eyespots small, triangular.

Mesopeltidia (figs. 3a–b): subtriangular to sickle-shaped, widely separated.

Metapeltidium (figs. 3a–b): entire, without any traces of median suture or pale band.

Legs (figs. 3a–b): I moderately attenuate, II–III of standard elongation. Leg IV femur very robust, with anterodorsal margin angled at slightly more than 90°.

Abdomen (figs. 3a–b, d–e): not attenuate. Tergite I with two pairs of anterior microsetae, II with three pairs. Tergites II–VII with setal formula slightly increased: 2 / 4 / 2 / 2 / 2 / 2, setae large, dark and rigid. Segment XII with dorsoposterior pair of macrosetae thick, dark and curved downwards; posterodorsal process large, massive and subtriangular.

Flagellum (figs. 3d–e): broadly spade-shaped, with pedicel/bulb angled at about 180°. Pedicel medium-sized and compressed (remarkably deeper than wide). Bulb in dorsal view very wide (1.19 times wider than long), anterior margin straight, lateral margins roundly angled at about 135°; bulb in lateral view moderately bulky (1.78 times longer than deep), dorsally concave, ventrally angled at about 95°; dorsal surface with a very large, dumbbell-like protuberance, flaked basally and distally by large, subrectangular depressions (the distal one much deeper and longer); dm 1 seta located on pedicel/bulb joint, dm 4 in subapical position; apex obtuse in dorsal view, subrectangular and slightly raised in lateral view.

Distribution (fig. 7). As for the genus (see above).

Conservation status. Vulnerable (VU), meeting UICN criteria B1a+2a;D2: known from only two fragmented localities, comprising a pooled area smaller than 5 km 2.

Ecological notes. According to the data kindly supplied by its collectors (Tomás M. Rodríguez-Cabrera and Carlos M. Martínez-Muñoz, pers. comm.), the specimens were collected in semideciduous forest at the base of limestone cliffs (fig. 5). The holotype was found under a rock semi-buried in the leaf litter and the male from Sierra de Caballos under the bark of a rotten log.

In the type locality, it lives syntopically with Siguanesiotes insulaepinorum comb. n., which was collected under an adjacent rock.

Etymology. The selected epithet is a Latin adjective that names anything related to marble. It alludes to the habitat of this interesting schizomid: the marble hills of the northern Isla de Pinos.

Remarks. The additional male from Sierra de Caballos is a large heteromorphic, with pedipalps much more elongated and strongly armed than the holotype (figs. 4a–b).

Unfortunately, this specimen vanished from IES collection before it could be measured and photographed in higher resolution (see above, in Additional Material Examined section), but both specimens are clearly conspecific. All other morphologically relevant characters match perfectly, e.g., shape, relative size and setation of abdominal segment XII and flagellum (compare herein figs. 3d–e to 4c–d). Moreover, the localities are separated by only 2.4 km air distance and Sierra Chiquita actually is a southern spur of Sierra de Caballos, fragmented by erosion across a 220 meter-wide pass.

General Remarks

In the succinct catalog of the Pedipalpi from western Cuba by Armas (2013), all schizomids from Isla de Pinos are missing, which is an obvious error since all other taxa of whipspiders and whipscorpions known from Isla de Pinos were listed, as were all schizomids from the other provinces of this region.

The schizomid fauna of Isla de Pinos has now doubled its known diversity for both genera and species; nevertheless, it is evidently still underestimated. Two of the undetermined populations recorded by Armas (1977: 4–5) remain as such: Loma de Bibijagua and Cayo Piedra. The former belongs to the same group of residual marble hills and must correspond to either Pinero gen. n. or Siguanesiotes gen. n. The latter is found far to the south, in an area of much more recent origin and with a completely different landscape (it is a very low, Quaternary limestone karstic plain), and could well correspond to a different genus. Moreover, the genera Rowlandius , Guanazomus and Dumitrescoella are widespread across the western mainland Cuba and could be expected to occur in Isla de Pinos as well. Schizomids typically have very restricted distributions, and at least additional vicariant species of the two new genera described herein are expected to occur in other isolate marble hills, which have been long isolated as biogeographical "islands within an island".

With the present addition, the diversity of the Cuban schizomid fauna reaches 13 genera and 57 species, of which 10 and 56, respectively, are national endemics. Also, the genus Luisarmasius , which now is monotypic, becomes the single schizomid genus endemic to Puerto Rico.

Figures

Fig. 3. Adult male holotype of Pinero marmoreus sp. n.: a) habitus, dorsal; b) habitus, lateral; c) pedipalps, lateral; d) abdominal segments IX–XII and flagellum, dorsal; e) abdominal segments IX–XII and flagellum, lateral.

Fig. 4. Adult male of Pinero marmoreus sp. n. from Sierra de Caballos (large heteromorphic, not type): a) pedipalps, lateral; b) distal part of pedipalp patella, tibia and tarsus, lateral; c) abdominal segments X–XII and flagellum, dorsal; d) abdominal segments IX–XII and flagellum, lateral. Photos courtesy Luis F. de Armas.

Fig. 5. Habitat and microhabitat of Pinero marmoreus sp. n. at Sierra de Caballos, i.e., semicaducifolious forest on karstic limestone: a) overview; b) close-up, see the collector of the holotype and a collaborator (Tomás M. Rodríguez- Cabrera and Raimundo López-Silvero, respectively). Photos courtesy Sheila Rodríguez Machado.