Arachnologische Mitteilungen 58

Arachnologische Mitteilungen / Arachnology Letters 58: 18-22 Karlsruhe, September 2019 Catalogue of the pseudoscorpions (Pseudoscorpiones) in František Miller’s collection (Department of Zoology, National Museum, Prague) František Šťáhlavský & Petr Dolejš doi: 10.30963/aramit5807 Abstract. The present catalogue lists data for a total of 176 specimens belonging to 18 species in the pseudoscorpion collection of the Czech arachnologist František Miller (1902–1983), housed in the National Museum in Prague. The material was collected during 1940–1976 in the modern-day Czech Republic and Slovakia. For these two countries, especially noteworthy items are species such as Mesochelifer ressli , Rhacochelifer euboicus , Neobisium brevidigitatum and Neobisium cf. jugorum . Keywords: Arachnological collection, Bohemia, faunistics, historical records, Moravia, Slovakia Zusammenfassung. Katalog der Pseudoskorpione (Pseudoscorpiones) in František Millers Sammlung (Abteilung für Zoologie, Nationalmuseum Prag). Im vorliegenden Katalog werden Daten von 176 Exemplaren aus 18 Arten aus der Pseudoskorpion-Sammlung des tschechischen Arachnologen František Miller (1902–1983) aus dem Nationalmuseum in Prag aufgelistet. Das Material wurde im Zeitraum 1940–1976 in den heutigen Ländern Tschechische Republik und Slowakei gesammelt. Für diese beiden Länder sind die Nach- weise folgender Arten besonders bemerkenswert: Mesochelifer ressli , Rhacochelifer euboicus , Neobisium brevidigitatum und Neobisium cf. jugorum . Professor RNDr. František Miller, DrSc. (Fig. 1) was born in Kročehlavy near Kladno on 27 January 1902. After graduating at the Fac­ ulty of Science of the Charles University in Prague, he started to teach at secondary schools in the Slovak towns of Štubnianske (today Turčianske) Teplice (1929) and Žilina (1939), and in the Czech town of Jindřichův Hradec (1939). He became director of the sec­ ondary school in the small Czech town of Soběslav during the Second World War. In 1947, he obtained his habilitation at the University of Agriculture in Brno and worked there until his death on 14 January 1983 (Buchar 1997). During his fruitful life (65 published papers), Miller pri­ marily studied spiders of the family Linyphiidae (Buchar 1997). As formalin pitfall traps and sieving belong to the most important collecting methods in arachnology, Miller’s material also contains other soil or epigean invertebrates, in­ cluding pseudoscorpions. The majority of the material was collected in the surroundings of Miller’s places of work. His large private collection was purchased by the National Muse­ um in Prague, Czech Republic, from Miller’s widow, Jarmila Millerová, in 1983 and deposited in the Department of Zoo­ logy of this Museum under accession numbers 100/83 and 103/83 (e.g., Kůrka 1994, Dolejš & Kůrka 2013, Kocourek & Dolejš 2016, Dolejš & Tuf in press). Beside spiders, the col­ lection also contained unsorted material of other invertebrates obtained together with spiders: harvestmen, pseudoscorpions, mites, centipedes, millipedes, isopods, etc. In this paper, we present a review of the pseudoscorpions (Pseudoscorpiones) found in the Miller’s collection. It contains 176 specimens, re­ presenting 18 species in five families. The collection contains historical records of particular value for faunistic purposes (Krajčovičová et al. 2017). The pseudoscorpion collection of the National Museum contains specimens preserved in ethanol, as well as some dry specimens. Most of the spirit material was collected by the former curator, Dr. Antonín Kůrka, from the Czech Republic and during inventory research in the newly established Brdy Protected Landscape Area ( Just et al. 2018). Further recent material was collected during expeditions of the Department of Entomology to the Dominican Republic, New Zealand, Puerto Rico and South Africa. The historical material (dry specimens and a few spirit specimens) comes from various destinations: besides the former Czechoslovakia (including the southwestern part of modern Ukraine), these include the Balkan Peninsula, Brazil, Italy and Mexico.Miller’s collection is thus an important part of the pseudoscorpion collection of the National Museum. Material and methods All pseudoscorpion specimens are maintained in 80% etha­ nol. Almost all of them (with the exceptions of Rhacochelifer euboicus ) were sexed and identified by the first author, using Christophoryová at al. (2011). Families are sorted systemati­ cally; genera and species are sorted alphabetically according to nomenclature used in Harvey (2013). The data are arranged as follows: locality – (number of mapping grid square) – date of collection – number and sex of specimens – (inventory number). The present administrative divisions of Europe are used. Within the Czech Republic, the historical regions of Bohe­ This contribution was presented at the 31st European Congress of Arachnology, Vác, Hungary, 2018 July 8–13 František Šťáhlavský, Department of Zoology, Charles University, Faculty of Science, Viničná 7, CZ – 128 44 Praha 2, Czech Republic; E-mail: frantisek.stahlavsky@natur.cuni.cz Petr Dolejš, Department of Zoology, National Museum, Cirkusová 1740, CZ-193 00 Praha 9 – Horní Počernice, Czech Republic; E-mail: petr_dolejs@nm.cz submitted 4.8.2018, accepted 19.7.2019, online 16.8.2019 Fig. 1: Prof. RNDr. František Miller, DrSc. (1902–1983) (personal archive of Jan Buchar)