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Issue: Vol. 5563 No. 1: 3 Jan. 2025
Type: Article
Published: 2025-01-03
DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5563.1.7
Page range: 64-72
Abstract views: 185
PDF downloaded: 6

A new species of fossil Phrynus Lamarck, 1801, from Dominican Republic amber (Amblypygi: Phrynidae)

Museum für Naturkunde; Leibniz Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity Science; Invalidenstraße 43; 10115 Berlin; Germany
Natural History Museum Bamberg; Staatliche Naturwissenschaftliche Sammlungen Bayerns; Fleischstraße 2; 96047 Bamberg; Germany
Amblypygi Whip spider Miocene Dominican amber Chiapas amber

Abstract

A new fossil whip spider, Phrynus luisdearmasi sp. nov., is described from the Miocene (probably Burdigalian) amber of the Dominican Republic. It differs from the previous Dominican amber species, Ph. resinae (Schawaller, 1979)—which may be better considered as a species inquirenda—in possessing both a pronounced dorsal tibial spine 1 on the pedipalp and a high number of subdivisions (34) on the tibia of leg I. The high tibial tarsomere count is potentially unique within the genus. Both amber species resemble the extant Ph. marginemaculatus C.L. Koch, 1840, but preserved morphology of both fossils is also reminiscent of several other modern Hispaniolan whip spiders. We also take the opportunity to propose Phrynus poinari nom. nov. as a replacement name for another species of fossil whip spider, Phrynus mexicana Poinar & Brown, 2004, from the Mexican (Miocene) Chiapas amber. This name should have been rendered ‘mexicanus’, and is thus preoccupied by a Recent species originally described as Phrynus mexicanus Bilimek, 1867.

 

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