Rowlandius ubajara
| Rowlandius ubajara | ||||||||||||
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Rowlandius ubajara , female |
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Rowlandius ubajara | ||||||||||||
| Santos , Ferreira & Buzatto , 2013 |
Rowlandius ubajara is a reddish-brown, a few millimeters large dwarf scourge scorpion (Schizomida). It was discovered in northeastern Brazil by a team led by Adalberto Santos in a limestone cave in Ubajara National Park .
features
The description of the species was based on a few males and females of the species, all of which were found in the same cave. The holotype , a male, has a total length of 2.72 millimeters. The prosoma is 1.27 millimeters, the opisthosoma 1.7 millimeters long. The propeltidium , which covers parts of the prosoma and the anterior segments of the opisthosoma, was 1.02 millimeters long and 0.56 millimeters wide. The female described as a paratype was significantly larger with a total length of 4.12 millimeters, 1.7 millimeters for the prosoma, 2.42 millimeters for the opisthosoma and 1.23 millimeters for the propeltidium.
The propeltidium of the male is pale brown and has an anterior and posterior pair of bristles, the chelicerae and pedipalps are bright red-brown and the opisthosoma is greenish-brown. In females, the prosoma, the pedipalp and the first pair of legs are red-brown. Eye spots and thus light sense organs are completely absent. The tergites I to IX of the opisthosoma each have a dorsal pair of bristles, the tergites X and XI have two lateral pairs of bristles and a ventral series of five bristles. The segments XI and XII are designed telescopically. The fixed finger of the Chelicere in the male has four teeth and in the female five teeth, of which the ventral is the longest. The movable finger has only indistinct teeth.
Further characteristics concern the bristling of the limbs and the flagellum as well as the proportions of the individual limb lengths of the limbs.
Habitat and way of life
The species has so far only been found in a damp and cold limestone cave , the Gruta de Ubajara, in the Ubajara National Park in the state of Ceará in northeastern Brazil. Part of the outer cave is open to visitors and is illuminated with lamps. The animals were found in the inner part of the cave, which consists of a single strand of the cave with a stream. The average temperature in this cave area is 23.5 ° C, the humidity is 99%.
The animals probably feed on springtails (Collembola) and dust lice (Psocoptera), which in turn feed on the bat guano of the largely insectivorous bats that live in the cave . The population is classified as small; only ten individuals could be found in the collection.
The animals are adapted to life in caves, but the lack of eyes does not necessarily mean that they are adapted to the cave, since the absence of such organs is not unusual in dwarf whip scorpions and visual orientation also plays a subordinate role in other, non-troglobiont species.
Systematics
Rowlandius ubajara was described as an independent species together with Rowlandius potiguar in 2013 by a research group led by Adalberto Santos from the Federal University of Minas Gerais . Both species were classified in the genus Rowlandius described in 1995 , which consists of 54 known species and is mainly found on the islands of the Caribbean .
The species was named after its location in the Ubajara National Park .
literature
- Adalberto J. Santos, Rodrigo Lopes Ferreira, Bruno A. Buzatto: Two New Cave-Dwelling Species of the Short-Tailed Whipscorpion Genus Rowlandius (Arachnida: Schizomida: Hubbardiidae) from Northeastern Brazil, with Comments on Male Dimorphism. PLoS ONE 8, 5, e63616, 2013 doi : 10.1371 / journal.pone.0063616
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Adalberto J. Santos, Rodrigo Lopes Ferreira, Bruno A. Buzatto: Two New Cave-Dwelling Species of the Short-Tailed Whipscorpion Genus Rowlandius (Arachnida: Schizomida: Hubbardiidae) from Northeastern Brazil, with Comments on Male Dimorphism. PLoS ONE 8, 5, e63616, 2013 doi : 10.1371 / journal.pone.0063616
