Assamhoplites, Panagiotis & Abel & Pérez-González, 2024

Porto, Willians, Kontos, Panagiotis & Pérez-González, Abel, 2024, African highland harvestman: New genus and new species of Filopalpinae Martens, 2022 (Opiliones, Assamiidae) from Wonchi crater, Oromia province, Ethiopia, Zoosystema 46 (22), pp. 577-587 : 579

Genus Assamhoplites n. gen.

urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:F98C9058-CAAE-4EED-9416-61B94E66C28C

TYPE SPECIES. — Assamhoplites martensis n. sp.

INCLUDED SPECIES. — Monotypic.

ETYMOLOGY. — The genus name is formed by the combination of Assam-, as a reference to the family Assamiidae where the new genus is allocated, and -hoplites from Ancient Greek ὁπλῖται, romanized hoplîtai, the famous soldiers of Ancient Greece who were armed with spears and shields. The spears are metaphorically associated with the highly elongated male pedipalp and the shield with the scutum magnum of these opilionids. Gender masculine.

COMPARATIVE DIAGNOSIS. — Even though males of both Filopalpinae genera, Assamhoplites n. gen. and Filopalpus , have characteristically long, thread-like pedipalps considerably longer than body length, the contribution of the podomeres elongation to this architecture differs in each genus. The highly elongated male pedipalps in Assamhoplites n. gen. include the strong elongations of the tibia and tarsus, where the tibia and patella have almost the same length. On the contrary, the highly elongated male pedipalp in Filopalpus does not exhibit a strong elongation in the tibia and tarsus (in fact, the tarsus is similar to that of a female), and the patella is remarkably more elongated than the tibia. Assamhoplites n. gen. has a wider granulated ocularium in males and females without other conspicuous armature, whereas Filopalpus exhibits a small and narrow ocularium strongly armed with a number of long, pointed spiniform apophyses, which are longest on the anterior and posterior ocularium rim. In fact, bodies of Filopalpus species are much more roughly granulated than Assamhoplites n. gen., generally with strong paramedian tubercles on the abdominal area. Additionally, the armature of the free tergites, in Filopalpus , is commonly differentiated from the armature of scutal area (at least in males) with a row of slender, drawn-out, pointed tubercles, longest in central third in comparison, Assamhoplites n. gen. has uniformly less body granulation, with no remarkable difference between scutal area and free tergite armature. Another remarkable difference between the two genera is in regard to the degree of sexually dimorphic male chelicerae. Males of Assamhoplites n. gen. exhibit a much bigger and more strongly armed male chelicerae compared to Filopalpus , where the elongated basichelicerite has a weakly marked bulla, is conspicuously granulated, and has a ventral surface heavily armed with many strong, pointed apophyses. The Assamhoplites n. gen. cheliceral hand is also strongly elongated and has a conspicuous modification of the fixed finger. In Filopalpus , the chelicerae are only slightly bigger in males, with few armature differences compared to the females but with neither a strong pointed apophysis in ventral basichelicerite nor a modified fixed finger in the cheliceral hand. The male genitalia of the two genera are very similar (probably signifying close phylogenetic proximity) and only show slight differences. In Assamhoplites n. gen. the apical rim of the pars distalis is slightly convex and contains two small mounts each with an apical macroseta, and the pars distalis, in an unexpanded state, is pointed downwards. In contrast, the penis in Filopalpus has a concave or straight apical rim of the pars distalis, and the pars distalis, in an unexpanded state, is pointed upwards.

DISTRIBUTION. — Ethiopia, Oromia province, Ambo, Wonchi crater.