Solifugae Research Articles

Taxonomy of Spiders

Among many arachnid orders like scorpions, sun spiders, harvestmen, pseudoscorpions, or mites, the araneae or web spiders include some of the most venomous species. For this reason taxonomy and phylogeny of this group are surveyed, at least in order to provide more attention to spider families and species whose venomous capabilities are unknown.

Description and ecology of a new species of sun spider (Arachnida: Solifugae) from the Brazilian Cerrado

A new species of solifuge from São Paulo State, south-eastern Brazil, is described, together with its phenology, habitat use, activity pattern and the effect of fire on the population. Mummucia coaraciandu n. sp. differs from other Mummuciidae in cheliceral dentition and pleurite coloration. Over a one-year period, 649 individuals of M. coaraciandu were captured in 72 pitfall traps distributed in three Cerrado physiognomies: borders of gallery forest (N=53), campo sujo (N=561) and campo cerrado (N=35). The species is diurnal and showed two peaks of surface activity during the year: the highest peak occurred in the cold–dry season (June to July) and the smaller peak in the middle of the warm–wet season (December to February). The number of individuals per trap was negatively correlated with the mean monthly temperature, but showed no correlation with the monthly precipitation. The sex ratio was male-biased (7:1) and the number of males trapped was positively correlated with the number of reproductive females. More individuals were trapped in burned areas when compared with unburned areas 1 month after the fire. This difference between the two areas was not observed 1 month before and 3–4 months after the passage of the fire (when the vegetation had recovered). Mummucia coaraciandu is the second solifuge described from the Brazilian Cerrado and its ecology is very similar to that of Mummucia mauryi from Caatinga vegetation.

An enigmatic, solifuge-like fossil arachnid from the Lower Carboniferous of Kamienna Göra (Intra-Sudetic Basin), Poland

A new arachnid (Chelicerata: Arachnida) from the Lower Carboniferous (Upper Visean) Szczawno Formation of Kamienna Gora, Poland, is described asSchneidarachne saganii n. gen. et n. sp. Early Carboniferous arachnids are generally rare and this new fossil cannot be easily assigned to any of the known arachnid Orders. It shares a number of features with some members of the arachnid order Solifugae (camel spiders, sun spiders): namely large, forward-projecting, chelate chelicerae with dentate fixed and free fingers, a distinct median sulcus on the carapace and an interrupted ridge of tubercles on the dorsal opisthosoma set into a loosely-defined median field. However, it lacks unequivocal autapomorphies of Solifugae. This fossil may be one of a growing number of stem-group Palaeozoic arachnids which lack the full set of diagnostic characters seen in crown-group members of the various orders. Thus,Schneidarachne saganii could represent a basai member of the lineage leading up to modem solifuges.

ADDITIONAL NOTES ON THE SOLPUGIDAE (ARACHNIDA, SOLIFUGAE) FROM ETHIOPIA AND SOMALIA

SUMMARY The Author lists additional records and localities of Solpugid species already known to exist in Somalia and Ethiopia. The study of the types of Ferrandia ferrandii (Kraepelin) 1899 proves the genera Enea Roewer, 1934 and Ferrandia Roewer, 1934 to be synonims. It is suggested that Solpugisticella Turk, 1960 may be included into Zeriassa Pocock, 1897.

Respiratory Function and Thermal Acclimation in Tropical Invertebrates

IT has been reported1 that some cold blooded animals show an increased respiratory quotient when exposed to high temperatures. We have investigated this phenomenon and other aspects of exposure to higher temperatures in connexion with thermal acclimation in molluscs and arthropods. Among the Mollusca we have used two species of Gastropoda common in the irrigation canals of the cotton growing country near Khartoum, both of them vectors of bilharzia; they are Biomphalaria pfeifferi (Dunker) and Bulanus truncatus (Audouin). Crustacea were represented by the terrestrial woodlice (Isopoda) Periscyphis jannonei Arcangeli and Metoponorthus pruinosus (Brandt), insects by the day-active desert beetle Adesmia antiqua Klug and by the night-active desert beetle Ocnera hispida Forskal, and arachnids by the scorpion Leiurus quinquestriatus (Hemprich and Ehrenberg), and by the camel spider (Solifugae) Galeodes grantae Pocock. In the latter two species juvenile animals were used; the others were adults. The snails and wood-lice were supplied with food at all times except when the measurements were being taken; the beetles and arachnids, which can survive more than 6 months' starvation in the laboratory, were unfed. Measurements were made on individual animals after acclimation first at 20° C and then at 34° C, each for 48 h, measurements being made at the same two temperatures by Warburg manometry. It was thus possible to compare the effects of acclimation with these two temperatures in measurements made on the same individuals.

A new genus of Solpugida

A new genus of Solpugida