Joya Daniel Chirivi
Unidad de Ecología y Sistemática (UNESIS), Laboratorio de Entomología, Departamento de Biología, Facultad de Ciencias, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana. Bogotá, Colombia. Carrera 7 N°. 40-62, Bogotá..
Zootaxa. 2021 Mar 19;4948(2):zootaxa.4948.2.1. doi: 10.11646/zootaxa.4948.2.1.
Mexico is the country with the largest diversity of the genus Phrynus (Amblypygi: Phrynidae); however, many species could remain hidden due to the conservative morphology of the group. Two of the Mexican species, P. operculatus, and P. jalisco show enough variation, between populations from different localities, to be considered as possible species complexes. The scarce taxonomic information of these species and the few analyses of their variation could cause misidentifications and sub estimation of the diversity. Specimens morphologically similar to P. operculatus from different Mexican localities were analyzed, using characters from the male and female genitals. Four new species are described, presenting illustrations of SEM for the male genitals. Details of the morphologic variation in this group of species are discussed, as well as the usefulness of sexual characters like the size proportions, and sclerotization in the female gonopods, and ornaments in males, to improve the diagnoses of the Mexican Phrynus. The known distribution of P. operculatus is large in comparison with those of the other species, after the result of this research, the possibility that it is a larger species complex is evident, thus, it is necessary to increase the morphologic and genetic population studies in this group.
墨西哥是幽灵螳属（幽灵目：幽灵螳科）物种多样性最为丰富的国家；然而，由于该类群形态保守，许多物种可能仍未被发现。墨西哥的两个物种，盖氏幽灵螳和哈利斯科幽灵螳，在来自不同地区的种群之间表现出足够的差异，有可能被视为复合物种。这些物种稀缺的分类学信息以及对其变异的少量分析可能导致错误鉴定和对其多样性的低估。利用雄性和雌性生殖器特征，对来自墨西哥不同地区的形态上与盖氏幽灵螳相似的标本进行了分析。描述了四个新物种，并给出了雄性生殖器的扫描电子显微镜图像。讨论了该物种组形态变异的细节，以及诸如尺寸比例、雌性生殖肢的硬化和雄性的装饰等性征在改进墨西哥幽灵螳诊断中的作用。与其他物种相比，盖氏幽灵螳已知的分布范围很大，根据这项研究的结果，它很可能是一个更大的复合物种，因此，有必要增加对该物种组的形态学和遗传种群研究。
