A new species of Charinus (Amblypygi: Charinidae) from Ghana, with notes on West African whip spiders

Abstract

The fauna of whip spiders (Amblypygi) in Western Africa is poorly known but probably diverse. Here, I describe the new speciesCharinuskakumsp. n.based on female morphology, and accompanied by DNA sequence data. The species is small and differs from other African species ofCharinusin the low number of pseudosegments on leg IV, female genital features, spination patterns of the pedipalp, and small body size. It was collected from wet tropical rainforest in Kakum National Park, Ghana and is only the fourth species ofCharinusto be recorded from the highly diverse Western African biodiversity hotspot. With a total body length of not even 6 mm it is also one of the smallest whip spiders in the world.