Revisão de pseudoescorpiões Geogarypidae (pseudoscorpiones) com enfase na diversidade brasileira

Abstract

Global biodiversity loss is occurring at an alarming rate, with 69% of monitored wildlife populations having disappeared in the last 40 years. Understanding of arthropod diversity is limited, with over 80% of species still undescribed. This study focuses on the diversity of Geogarypidae in the tropical forests of Northeastern Brazil, emphasizing discoveries of endemic species. In addition, it evaluates the effectiveness of the new coded description method to accelerate species identification, a necessary advance in view of the extinction crisis in fragile ecosystems. The coded taxonomic description method proposed by Zeppelini et al. (2024) was used, which allows rapid import, transformation, and expansion of species data. A total of 181 specimens of Geogarypidae were found, distributed in 27 species, including 22 new species and one new genus. In addition, four new morphotypes were identified, and in this study 15 new species of the genus Geogarypus were described (G. alagoensis sp nov., G. brescoviti sp nov., G. calon sp nov., G. caatinguensis sp nov., G. chaetomaculatus sp nov., G. chamberlini sp nov., G. curumim sp nov., G. eliptycus sp nov., G. montanus sp nov., G. rajatus sp nov., G. salimoni sp nov., G. sergipensis sp nov., G. sertanejus sp nov., G. talhadensis sp nov., G. volkeri sp nov.) and one complementar description (G. cuyabanus (Balzan, 1887)). In the last five years, approximately 75 new species of pseudoscorpions have been described, with the family Geogarypidae accounting for only 1.33% of this rate. In contrast, this study described 60% of the annual species. The application of the coded description method to the genus Geogarypus demonstrated a significant increase in the rate of species description, revealing a more complex morphological diversity and new structures not previously observed. The review of the family Geogarypidae indicated that the number of species described is still underestimated, with several new species waiting to be documented.