An annotated type catalogue of the camel spiders (Arachnida: Solifugae) held in the Zoological Museum Hamburg

Abstract

Solifuges are an enigmatic and poorly studied group of arachnids. Commonly referred to as camel spiders or sun spiders, these animals are voracious predators of small animals and found in arid biomes of the Old World and the Americas. In this paper, we provide a catalogue for the solifuges (Arachnida: Solifugae) that are held at the Center of Natural History in Hamburg. The collections in Hamburg are predominantly historical and were accumulated by Karl Kraepelin between 1889 and 1914 with the help of other famous arachnologists such as Ferdinant Karsch and Eugène Simon. The re-study of these collections indicates that there are 38 type species and 65 type specimens from 10 families. We provide a detailed account of this material, including collection data, taxonomic updates, measurements and high-resolution images for species that are either poorly or not at all illustrated. Most specimens (70%) were collected in Africa as part of colonial expeditions or field surveys but there are also types from Western Asia (11%), and North and South America (19%). We provide an overview of the history of this collection, including a summary of the field surveys during which the specimens were collected and the arachnologists who described the material. Overall, this is the third-largest collection of solifuges in Germany with a distinct biogeographical focus and one of the largest collections of camel spiders in Europe.