Withius hispanus new to the fauna of Slovakia ( Pseudoscorpiones : Withiidae )

An illustrated description of Withius hispanus (L. koch, 1873) is provided based on its morphological and morphometric characters. this finding of W. hispanus is the first record of the family Withiidae in slovakia. the present re-description of this species allows an assessment of the variability of its morphological and morphometric


Material and methods
One female of Withius hispanus was examined (leg.E. Énekesová): SW Slovakia, region Galanta, study site situated in a floodplain forest by the Čierna voda brook near the village of Vozokany in the Podunajská rovina lowland (grid reference number from the Databank of Slovak Fauna 7872, 48°06'02.46''N,17°41'09.67''E,117 m a.s.l.) (Fig. 1).The soil profile was composed mostly of sandy gravel from the Danube River resulting from the former activity of the river, alluvial sediments and loess loam.The floodplain forest was composed of white willow (Salix alba) along with white poplar (Populus alba).The vegetation comprising the undergrowth was formed mainly by wild garlic (Allium ursinum) and yellow wood anemones (Anemone ranunculoides).The female was collected using a pitfall trap (4% formaldehyde solution) which was exposed from 4 th July to 1 st August 2009.The trap comprised a plastic cup with an upper diameter of 7 cm and with a wooden cover to protect traps from rainfall and litter.The specimen was determined by J. Christophoryová and G. Gardini.The specimen was studied as a temporary slide mount, and photographed using a Leica DM1000 compound microscope with ICC50 Camera Module (LAS EZ application, 1.8.0).Measurements were taken from the photographs using the AxioVision 40LE application (v.4.5).Figures were drawn using a Leica drawing tube.The material is deposited in the collection of the first author in the Comenius University, Bratislava.

Results
Description of the female of Withius hispanus (Fig. 2): Carapace, tergites, sternites and palps reddish-brown; vestitural setae on carapace, tergites and palps dentate (except the two lateral acuminate setae on tergite XI), all setae on coxae and sternites acuminate; surface of carapace granulated.Carapace (Fig. 2A) about as long as broad, broadest posteriorly, anterior margin straight; one pair of well developed eyes with lenses and two transverse furrows, the anterior one distinct, the subbasal indistinct, flat and situated close to posterior margin of carapace; 53 setae, 6 of which are along the anterior margin, 26 in front of the first transverse furrow and 7 along the posterior margin (insertion of posterior setae markedly bulged); 19 slitlike lyrifissures present on carapace, 6 of them on the posterior carapace margin (Fig. 2A).
Palps thick, hand of chela subcylindrical, movable finger slightly longer than width of hand; trichobothria as in Fig. 2C; fixed finger with 19, movable finger with 21 contiguous teeth; terminal tooth of fixed finger broken; no venom ducts discernible.
Pedal tarsus IV with long tactile seta (Fig. 2D), distinctly longer than width of tarsus (length of seta 0.24 mm, width of tarsus 0.08 mm) and inserted distally of the middle (TS = 0.65).

Discussion
Until recently, 54 pseudoscorpion species from seven families were known from Slovakia, including the previous first regional records of Allochernes powelli (Kew, 1916), Chthonius carinthiacus Beier, 1951 and Chthonius tuberculatus Hadži, 1937(cHristopHor yová et al. 2011b, 2011c, 2012).In the present paper the family Withiidae is reported as the first regional record, represented by the species Withius hispanus.This species was originally briefly described by KocH (1873) from Spain from the collection of E. Simon.More taxonomic characters were given by Beier (1932,1963), but he considered Withius faunus (Simon, 1879) as a synonym of Withius hispanus.Heur tault (1971a) elaborated a key of the European and North African species with the differentiation of the species W. hispanus and W. faunus.Later she described their genitalia in detail (Heurtault 1971b).According to the key by Heurtault (1971a), the palpal femur of W. hispanus is less than 2.5 times and the palpal patella less than 2.3 times longer than broad.The palpal femur of the Slovakian specimen is 2.9 times longer than broad.Hadži (1939) mentioned a length/width ratio of the palpal femur of 2.6 times, ducháČ (1999) 2.9 times and maHnert (2004) from 2.3 to 2.8 times.The main taxonomic characters of the Slovak female correspond with those given by other authors for this species.A greater variability was registered in the chaetotaxy of the carapace, sternites and tergites, measurements of the carapace, galea, pedipalps and leg IV and the number of teeth on the chelal fingers.Hadži (1939) mentioned that tergites I and X were not divided, in our female tergite I was partly divided and tergite X divided.The presence of six setae on the cheliceral hand mentioned by Hadži (1939) seems to be incorrect; the hand of the Slovak female and specimens from the collection of second author from Sardinia bears only five setae.
dasHdamirov & scHawaller (1992) and maHnert (2004) differentiated W. hispanus from W. piger (Simon, 1878) by the position of trichobothria it and ist on the fixed chelal finger (Fig. 2C) -in W. hispanus the trichobothrium it is dorsal and ist internal (e contra converso in W. piger) and it is situated in the level of the ist position (in W. piger more distally than ist).The spermatheca of both species is different as well (Heurtault 1971b, legg & Jones 1988).
Withius hispanus lives mainly under the bark of trees and stumps such as plane trees (lessert 1911(lessert , Kästner 1928)), oak and elm trees (Beier 1963), an almond tree and pine stumps (Beier 1967) or dead trees (ducháČ 1999).dasHdamirov (1999) collected specimens under the bark of trees, stumps and occasionally under stones.zaragoza (2007) found specimens under the bark of domestic apple and a locust tree.In Slovakia, the female was found in the pitfall trap situated in the floodplain forest composed of white willow and white poplar.
This new record of the family Withiidae -and also several other previous first species and family records in Slovakia (cHristopHoryová et al. 2011a, 2011b, 2011c, 2011d, 2012) -indicates that the total diversity of pseudoscorpions is still not completely known in this country.

Fig. 1 :
Fig. 1: Map showing the locality ofWithius hispanus in slovakia.Arrow points to the study site.