Dicranopalpus cantabricus Dresco 1953
Creators: name: Wijnhoven, Hay
name: Martens, Jochen
name: Prieto, Carlos E.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2022
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Arachnida
Opiliones
Phalangiidae
Dicranopalpus
Dicranopalpus cantabricus

description: Dicranopalpus cantabricus Dresco, 1953 (revalidation)
Figs 4B, 5B, 6B, G, 9D, 11–13
Dicranopalpus cantabricus Dresco, 1953: 147–149. Type locality: ‘‘Au-dessus du refuge des Puertos de Aliva, (…) au dela du Col Horcadina de Covarrobres (alt. 1900 m.) (43.16° N, 4.81° W) (province de Santander, presently Cantabria).’’
D. martini – Roewer 1953: 206. — Luque 1992: 150.
Dicranopalpus sp. – Merino & Anadón 2008: 203.
Diagnosis
Medium-sized, male dark brown coloured, leg femora in both sexes with trichomes.
Material examined
SPAIN • 1 ♂, 1 ♀; Asturias, Río Cares, Camarmeña; 43.157° N, 4.503° W; 320 m a.s.l.; 24 Apr. 2006; L. Crespo leg.; both specimens are partly bleached; ZUPV 4542.
Description
Male
LENGTH. 3.4, width of prosoma 2.5, BLI 1.8.
DORSUM (Fig. 4B). Ground colour pale yellowish. Prosoma with dark brown spots and patches laterally and posteriorly of eye tubercle. Anterior and lateral margins of prosoma pale yellowish. Ozopores small, round. Dark brown saddle narrowing on opisthosomal tergites III–IV, widening on following tergites. Opisthosomal tergites with paramedian pairs of white spots and transverse rows of small dark spots.
EYE TUBERCLE. Greyish brown with silvery sheen, shallow, canaliculated (with longitudinal groove), slightly wider than long, and slightly tilted backwards, at about its length from anterior margin of carapace, dorsally with few minute black setae. Eyes surrounded by narrow black ring.
VENTER AND COXAE. Uniformly pale yellowish with scattered black setae.
CHELICERAE. Uniformly pale yellowish, segment I with distinct ventral spur; segment I dorsally, and segment II dorsally and medially near cheliceral claw with stout black setae (Fig. 5B).
PEDIPALPS (Fig. 11A–C). (Colouration of specimen faded, colour pattern probably as in D. gallaecicus sp. nov.) Compared to D. gallaecicus sp. nov., segments longer and more slender; femoral apophysis pale, more than half as long as femur width at its base, femur on ventral side with sensilla chaetica that are slightly longer than other setae on femur; patella slender, apophysis about as long as patella, slightly widening in distal half, in lateral view curved upwards (Figs 6G, 11A, C). Mediodistal apophysis of tibia a small knob (Fig. 6B). Tarsus straight, slightly bent ventrally in distal third section; claw pectinate (Fig. 11B).
LEGS. Leg lengths I–IV (in parentheses femur lengths): 25 (4.6); 46 (8.3); 28 (5.0); 37 (6.7). Colouration faded, colour pattern probably as in D. gallaecicus sp. nov. Leg segments cylindrical in cross section, dorsal and dorsolateral sides of femora with sensilla chaetica and a few small black spines. Femur I on dorsodistal half with trichomes, legs II to IV with trichomes, absent only on ventral side proximally. Patellae and tibiae densely covered with trichomes. Tibia II with 5 pseudo-articulations; metatarsi I–IV have 4, 9, 4 and 6 pseudo-articulations, respectively. Numerous bipterate setae on prolateral sides of metatarsus III and IV and in decreasing numbers on proximal tarsomeres 1–10 of leg III and 1–19 of leg IV.
PENIS (Fig. 12). Long and slender; length 1.94; truncus widest in basal ⅓, tapering to glans (Fig. 12A). Intrinsic penial muscle in about basal 2 /5. Glans longer than wide, ventral margin continuing in a smooth line to horns (Fig. 12G); glans dorsally and ventrally sclerotized and provided with canaliculi; dorsal cavity large and ovoid (Figs 12C–D, F–G). Dorsal truncus–glans transition in a wide angle. A pair of sensory setae (Fig. 12E). Stylus about as long as glans, slightly curved ventrally; two slender horns positioned on stylus.
Female
LENGTH. 4.1, width of prosoma 2.4, BLI 1.9.
DORSUM. Colours of specimen faded.
PEDIPALPS (Fig. 11D–E). Femoral apophysis robust, nearly as long as femur width at base; patellar apophysis large, reaching to base of tibial apophysis, as thick as tibia. Mediodistal apophysis of tibia stout, as long as wide (Fig. 11E). Femur ventrally with large plumose setae, tibia ventrally with a row of 14 robust plumose setae.
LEGS. As in male. Leg lengths I–IV (in parentheses femur lengths): 23 (4.6); 40 (8.8); 25 (5.1); 38 (7.1). Trichomes on femora as in male. Tibia II with 3 pseudo-articulations; metatarsi I–IV with 4, 7, 3 and 6 pseudo-articulations, respectively.
SEMINAL RECEPTACLES. Located in ovipositor segments 6–7; two long tubes, each with a small lateral pocket at base (Fig. 9D).
Distribution and ecology
The locality of the redescribed specimens (Camarmeña, Asturias) is about 10 km from the type locality of D. cantabricus (Puertos de Áliva, Cantabria), in the Picos de Europa National Park (Fig. 13). Roewer (1953) erroneously located his D. martini records of Monte de los Sagredales (municipality of Caso, Asturias) in the Sierra de Guadarrama. Records given by Merino & Anadón (2008) from the Reserva Natural Integral de Muniellos (municipality of Cangas de Narcea) are in the mountainous Asturias, and these are likely D. cantabricus. We tentatively ascribe the record of Luque (1992) from a coastal Cantabrian site (Ría de Tina Menor, municipality of Val de San Vicente) to this taxon. In summary, D. cantabricus is a Spanish endemite, probably restricted to the Cantabrian Mountains. Phenology unknown.
description: Published as part of Wijnhoven, Hay, Martens, Jochen & Prieto, Carlos E., 2022, Revision of the genus Dicranopalpus from northern Spain and Corsica, with descriptions of two new species (Arachnida, Opiliones, Phalangioidea), pp. 39-73 in European Journal of Taxonomy 839 on pages 53-56, DOI: 10.5852/ejt.2022.839.1931, http://zenodo.org/record/7116226