Graecophalangium militare
Creators: name: Murányi, Dávid
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2015
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Arachnida
Opiliones
Phalangiidae
Graecophalangium
Graecophalangium militare

description: Graecophalangium militare (C.L. Koch, 1839)
(Figs. 2–5)
Opilio militaris C.L. Koch, 1839 — Koch 1839: 34. (original description); Koch 1847: 42. (complementary description, Fig. 1530 on Pl. DLIII).
Phalangium militare (C.L. Koch, 1839) — Roewer 1911: 11. (comb. n., Fig. 7 on Pl. II); Roewer 1912: 96. (complementary description, Fig. 26 on Pl. 2).
Graecophalangium militare (C.L. Koch, 1839) — Roewer 1923: 756. (comb. n., complementary description, Fig. 933); Roewer 1956: 262. (further Greek records); Martens 1966: 352. (comments and distribution, first record from Montenegro); Kury 2005 (catalog); Anonymous 2014 (catalog).
Material examined: Albania: Kolonjë district, Grammos Mts, rocky alpine grassland above a swampy spring, locality code 2014/ 37, 1940 m, N40°19.907’ E20°44.586’, 11.v.2014, leg. Tibor Kovács and Dávid Murányi: 1 ♂ (HNHM).
Diagnosis: Medium sized, brown Graecophalangium with middle long legs. Chelicera with five processes on the distal segment, one of them on movable finger. Shaft of penis with long and wide distal spoon; glans distinctly expanded ventrally.
Redescription: Body shape and proportions are typical of the genus. (Fig. 2). Length: male 7 mm; width: male 4 mm.
Colour: Dorsum brown with darker and paler patches (Figs. 2A,C). Propeltidium with elongated, paired dark patch in front of ocularium, patches along lateral borders and between denticle lines of mesopeltidium hardly separated; metapeltidium with transverse dark line of patches. Longitudinal dark pattern of opisthosomal scutum laterally delimited dark, with wide and conspiciuous light brown median line; abruptly narrowing on 4 th opisthomal tergum, then widened again and ending before the free tergites. Abdominal surface bear transverse lines of dark and pale dots. Ocularium pale brown dorsally, laterally darker; tubercles pale. Venter pale, coxae with numerous brown dots arranged basally and laterally, genital operculum entirely pale (Figs. 2B–C). Ground colour of chelicerae pale but both segments bear dark patches; fingers pale, teeth and apical parts black (Figs. 3A–C). Ground colour of pedipalps pale; trochanter, femur, patella and tibia bear dark patches, tarsus apically dark brown, tarsal claw black (Figs. 3D–F). Legs with pale femora bear dark patches, patellae and tibiae brown with dark patches; tarsi brown, claws black (Figs. 2D–G).
Dorsum (Figs. 2A,C): Surface imbricate and tuberculate, peltidium with setae on denticles, abdominal setae mostly on areoles. Denticles on peltidium stout and dense; propeltidium with numerous denticles, each side of ocularium with two posteriorly diverging zigzag lines of denticles. Supracheliceral laminae with small, simple denticles (Fig. 3H). Ozopores with pairs of small, anterior and posterior denticles, metapeltidium with transverse row of denticles. Ocularium small, with medial groove and rows of small, obtuse tubercles (Fig. 3G). Setae on abdominal scutum arranged in transverse rows.
Venter (Fig. 2B–C): Surface imbricate, setae on areoles; genital operculum and coxae densely setose. Genital operculum trapezoid, anterior margin convex; length less than twice as long as posterior margin.
Chelicerae (Figs. 3A–C): Robust and large, distal segment with five prominent processes; surface mostly glabrous but imbricate on lateral sides of basal segment. Setae scarce, dorsal ones on basal segment with small tubercles. Movable finger with large basal tooth, then smaller ones altered by minute teeth; teeth on digit of distal segment are medium sized, inequal. Two of the five processes are located on the distal half of the body of distal segment, these are setose, straight and rounded; further two are on the fixed digit of the segment, both are bald and acute, the basal one points inwards while distal one points outwards; fifth process is located on frontal basal portion of the movable finger, elongated, bald and acute, basally erect while apex points inward.
Pedipalps (Figs. 3D–F, Table 1): Proportions characteristical of the genus; surface glabrous but partly imbricate, setae diverse. Trochanter with small ventral and dorsal tubercles and simple setae. Femur lacks apophysis but medial apex swollen; ventral surface with numerous small tubercles and simple setae, lateral sides mostly bald, dorsal surface with larger tubercles especially on apical third. Patella with small, rounded medio-distal apophysis; the apophysis is densely setose, other surfaces bear only few setae, dorsally with spine-tipped tubercles. Tibia lacks apophysis but medio-distal portion densely setose. Tarsus densely setose and with two ventral rows of fine denticles; tarsal claw smooth.
Legs (Fig. 2D–G, Table 1): Relatively short, second pair less than three times longer than length of body; surface mostly imbricate. Hindcoxa with four weak teeth latero-apically, first three coxae with medio-dorsal apical tooth. Trochanter with a few denticles. Femur with triangular teeth arranged in rows on carinae, forefemur distinctly thickened. Patella slightly swollen, with a dorsal row and a few apical triangular teeth. Tibia carinated and with sparse triangular teeth on legs 2–4, while foretibia distinctly thickened and armed with many triangular teeth on ventral and dorsal surfaces. Tarsi with dense setation, claw smooth; metatarsus of the foreleg is ventrally armed.
Penis (Fig. 4): Length 3.1 mm, width of the base 0.5 mm; colour pale brown, except dark brown medial section and lateral ridges of shaft. Shaft slightly bent ventrally at the base, medial portion straight while apical part bent back; widened basally, then tapering but apical third widened and forming distal spoon. Musculature limited to basal third. Shallow dorsal sulcus derived from basal fifth gradually widening into spoon. Glans expanded ventrally, highest in distal third, slightly concave dorsally, cross section triangular. In dorsal view, glans constricted after a wide base, apical half tongue-shaped. Stylus long, reaches more than half length of glans; dorsal paired apical setae placed more apically than the vestigial ventral pair.
Affinities: On the basis of similar built-up of the penis and large processes on chelicera, G. militare is apparently the more closely related to G. atticum. However, they are easy to identify on the basis of number and arrangement of cheliceral processes, more slender and less sclerotized penis of G. militare (compare with Fig. 932B in Roewer (1923), Fig. 3 in Mitov (2003) and Fig. 9 in Snegovaya & Staręga (2009); according to Martens (1966) and Mitov (2003), number of cheliceral process may vary on G. atticum). Graecophalangium drenskii, also having large processes on the chelicera, differs from the above two by having only slightly expanded glans of penis, and one of its three cheliceral processes placed on movable finger (Mitov 1995: Figs. 2,6–7). The Central Asian G. karakalensis have rather wide but short distal spoon on penial shaft; in addition, its chelicera is armed with four processes (Tchemeris & Snegovaya 2010: Figs. 17–20,11–13). Graecophalangium cretaeum and G. punicum seem to be less closely related to G. militare: both are having elongated glans of penis, and G. cretaeum is having only one, while G. punicum is lacking any cheliceral process (Martens 1966: Figs. 9–12; Staręga 1973: Figs. 24–25).
Distribution and ecology: The species was described from Greece without exact locality (Koch 1839). Roewer (1912, 1923, 1956) redescribed the species and enumerated its records from the northeastern Peloponnese. Martens (1966) published further records from Attica, Central Greece and the vicinity of Herceg Novi, Montenegro. These data are based on specimens kept in the Senckenberg Museums Frankfurt and the Naturhistorischen Museums Wien; however, they are not enumerated in details but depicted on a map. Since then, the species was not reported and the present capture is its first data from Albania.
The Albanian locality is in the Grammos Mts, close to the Greek border. The Grammos belongs to the Pindos ranges of the southern Balkans, forming one of its northernmost chain. Most of the Grammos are built up from limestone, mostly deforested with higher portions covered by alpine grasslands and pastures, the highest peak is being 2520 meters tall. The specimen was found in early afternoon of 11 May at an elevation about 2000 meters, walking in a rocky alpine grassland patch above a swampy sping (Figs. 5A–C). Despite rather high daily temperature, the area still had snow packs and the vegetation was in an early spring aspect with just blooming Colchicum and Scilla fields. The existence of a fully matured male in that season indicates overwintering in the adult stage.
description: Published as part of Murányi, Dávid, 2015, First record of the genus Graecophalangium Roewer, 1923 (Opiliones: Phalangiidae) from Albania, with redescription of G. militare (C. L. Koch, 1839), pp. 4-13 in Ecologica Montenegrina 4 on pages 7-12, DOI: 10.37828/em.2015.4.2, http://zenodo.org/record/8032142