Rhampsinitus flavidus Lawrence, 1931

Starêga, Wojciech, 2009, Some southern African species of the genus Rhampsinitus Simon (Opiliones: Phalangiidae), Zootaxa 1981, pp. 43-56 : 44-45

? Rhampsinitus flavidus Lawrence, 1931

Rhampsinitus flavidus Lawrence, 1931: 486 –487, fig. 73a–d [type locality: Makoetsi near Leydsdorp]; Kauri 1961: 154, Lawrence 1963: 304.

Material examined. 1 Ψ ( MRAC 200.659) South Africa, Middelburg, under stones on rocky slope, collected 4 August 1994 by M. Jocqué, J. Jocqué, F. Jocqué and E. Tybaert.

Diagnosis. Diagnostic characters of this species are given in the key of Kauri (1961: 148–150).

Description. FEMALE: body oviform, 6.5 mm long, carapace 2.5 mm wide. About 15 denticles in front of eye mound divided into two groups by an elongate „bald” triangle with a single denticle in the middle of the frontal margin. Some small denticles scattered between eye mound and lateral margins. Each tergite with single transversal row of minute denticles. Eye mound nearly as long as wide and high, distance from frontal margin equalling eye mound length, with 3–4 denticles on the eye rings.

Chelicerae and palps unarmed, only with bristles. Legs short. Femora with rows of minute sharp granules, mostly on ventral side. Other segments only with bristles. Femur length: I: 3.4 mm, II: 5.8 mm, III: 3.5 mm, IV: 4.6 mm; BLI 1.333. False joints on metatarsi: I: 2, II: 5, III: 3, IV: 4.

Body mainly whitish yellow. Dark brown dots arranged in transversal rows on last tergites (from 5th), scattered on sides of abdomen and ordered to rows again on abdominal sternites. Dark brown lines around eye mound forming a triangle pointing forward. Four quite large dots on each side near lateral margins of carapace. Saddle marked as a brown outline (with broad light middle stripe) till abdominal tergite II and as brown transversal lines (lighter in the middle) on tergites III to V, there ending abruptly and bluntly. Sides of saddle slightly undulating, broadest portion on tergite II. Venter yellowish, variegated with brown. Coxae with numerous brown dots, their dorsal rings not clearly marked. All appendages yellowish, with numerous small brown dots. Palpal femur retrolaterally with a narrow longitudinal brown line extending nearly over its whole length.

Distribution and remarks. This species has been described by Lawrence (1931) from a single male collected in the vicinity of Leydsdorp (now in Limpopo Province). There are some similarities (e.g., in the group of denticles in front of the eye mound and general body coloration) between the type and my female, but I am not convinced that they belong to the same species. Moreover, the distance between both localities is large, and my female could actually belong to R. transvaalicus .