Gustavo Silva de Miranda

• Ph.D.
• University of Nebraska–Lincoln

Asymmetrical rates of cladogenesis and extinction abound in the Tree of Life, resulting in numerous minute clades that are dwarfed by larger sister groups. Such taxa are commonly regarded as phylogenetic relicts or "living fossils" when they exhibit an ancient first appearance in the fossil record and prolonged external morphological stasis, partic...

Advanced sequencing technologies have expedited resolving higher-level arthropod relationships. Yet, dark branches persist, principally among groups occurring in cryptic habitats. Among chelicerates, Solifugae (“camel spiders”) is the last order lacking a higher-level phylogeny and thus, historically characterized as “neglected [arachnid] cousins”....

Considerable progress has been achieved in resolving higher-level relationships of Arthropoda in the past two decades, largely precipitated by advances in sequencing technology. Yet, dark branches persist in the arthropod tree of life, principally among groups that are difficult to collect, occur in cryptic habitats, or are characterized by minute...

To date, only two whip spider species have been recorded in China. We describe a new species, Sarax sinensis sp. nov., from Fujian, China. This species is morphologically similar to S. ioanniticus (Kritscher, 1959), S. israelensis (Miranda et al., 2016), and S. seychellarum (Kraepelin, 1898), but can be distinguished by the combination of the follo...

Asymmetrical rates of cladogenesis and extinction abound in the Tree of Life, resulting in numerous minute clades that are dwarfed by larger sister groups. Such taxa are commonly regarded as phylogenetic relicts or "living fossils" when they exhibit an ancient first appearance in the fossil record and prolonged external morphological stasis, partic...

The arachnid order Schizomida is a relatively understudied group of soil-dwelling predators found on all continents except Antarctica. While efforts to understand their biology are growing, there is still much to know about them. A curious aspect of their morphology is the male flagellum, a sexually dimorphic, tail-like structure which differs in s...

The arachnid order Schizomida is a relatively understudied group of soil-dwelling predators found on all continents except Antarctica. While efforts to understand their biology are growing, there is still much to know about them. A curious aspect of their morphology is the male flagellum, a sexually dimorphic, tail-like structure which differs in s...

The whip spider family Charinidae Quintero, 1986 is the most speciose and widely distributed in the arachnid order Amblypygi Thorell, 1883. It comprises three genera and 95 species distributed across all tropical continents and the eastern Mediterranean. Despite recent advances in the taxonomy of the family, a global revision of all its species, ne...

The whip spider family Charinidae Quintero, 1986 is the most speciose and widely distributed in the arachnid order Amblypygi Thorell, 1883. It comprises three genera and 95 species distributed across all tropical continents and the eastern Mediterranean. Despite recent advances in the taxonomy of the family, a global revision of all its species, ne...

The present contribution addresses the phylogeny and biogeography of the pantropical whip spider family Charinidae Quintero, 1986, the most species-rich in the arachnid order Amblypygi Thorell, 1883, based on morphology and multilocus DNA sequences, analysed simultaneously using parsimony, maximum likelihood and Bayesian inference. The morphologica...

Parthenogenesis is documented in a few species of Amblypygi, but it is unknown how widespread in the order this reproductive behaviour is, and little has been researched regarding aspects of embryonic and post-embryonic development in the group. Here, we studied the parthenogenetic capacity of an Amazonian whip spider (Charinus guto) evaluating the...

The arachnid order Amblypygi is recorded for the first time in Italy, with the species Charinus ioanniticus (Kritscher, 1959). An isolated reproductive population was found in an underground air-raid shelter dating back to World War II below the city centre of Trieste. This represents the second record of this parthenogenetic species in continental...

Whip spiders belong to the order Amblypygi with its 220 extant species inhabiting mostly tropical and subtropical regions (Weygoldt 2000, Harvey 2013, Miranda et al. 2018). Charinidae is the most diverse family and is the only one that has parthenogenetic species (e.g., Armas 2000, 2005, Weygoldt 2007, Seiter & Wolff 2014). Charinus ioanniticus (Kr...

The present contribution addresses the phylogeny and biogeography of the pantropical whip spider family Charinidae Quintero, 1986, the most species-rich in the arachnid order Amblypygi Thorell, 1883, based on morphology and multilocus DNA sequences, analysed simultaneously using parsimony, maximum likelihood and Bayesian inference. The morphologica...

Amblypygids, commonly known as whip spiders, are one of the small orders of Arachnida with a global distribution in the tropical and subtropical regions. Amblypygids are essentially absent from temperate areas, with only three species known from the Western Palaearctic. Here, we expand the known distribution of Charinus ioanniticus (Kritscher, 1959...

The genus Typopeltis Pocock, 1894 is poorly known regarding its systematics, natural history, and distribution , despite important taxonomic advances during the 1990s. Currently, only 13 species are known from East Asia, including areas in south China, Japan, Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, and Taiwan. In this work, we describe and illustrate a new specie...

The whip spider genus Sarax Simon, 1892 is widely distributed throughout Southeast Asia and part of the Indo-Malayan region. The genus is recorded from several Indonesian islands, but no species are known from inside the area that comprises the biogeographical region of Wallacea, despite being recorded from both sides of the area. An expedition to...

The taxonomy of the Trechona C. L. Koch, 1850 species is revisited with the description of two new species from Southeastern Brazil: Trechona excursora sp. nov., from the state of Minas Gerais, and Trechona cotia sp. nov., from the state of São Paulo. Trechona uniformis Mello‐Leitão, 1935 is redescribed, its female newly described and new data are...

The whip spider genus Phrynichus (Phrynichidae, Amblypygi) is widely distributed in Africa, the Arabian Peninsula and Asia with a total of 17 species. No records, however, are known from several countries in the Middle East. Here we provide the first record of a whip spider from Iran (Ilam Province), with the description and illustration of a new s...

Amblypygi Thorell, 1883 has five families, of which Phrynichidae is one of the most diverse and with a wide geographic distribution. The genera of this family inhabit mostly Africa, India and Southeast Asia, with one genus known from the Neotropics, Trichodamon Mello-Leitão, 1935. Trichodamon has two valid species, T. princeps Mello-Leitão, 1935 an...

The modestly diverse order Amblypygi Thorell, 1883 includes five families, of which Charinidae Quintero, 1986 is the most diverse and with the widest geographical distribution. The family currently comprises three genera, Catageus Thorell, 1889, Charinus Simon, 1892 and Sarax Simon, 1892, the first known by one species from a single locality in Mya...

Sexual dimorphism is a common feature of life. Researchers have noted that some species of Amblypygi (Class Arachnida) exhibit male-biased sexual dimorphism, but a broad overview of the prevalence of sexual dimorphism in the order does not exist. In order to provide such an overview, we imaged and measured morphological characteristics of 390 ambly...

In this chapter, the state of art of the arachnid fauna of the Brazilian Atlantic Forest is presented, emphasizing diverse aspects of their systematics, morphology, natural history, distribution and conservation. Almost all groups of extant arachnids are present in this biome, such as mites, whip-spiders, spiders, scorpions, whip-scorpions, schizom...

Eukoenenia roquettei has been cited as Eukoenenia roquetti [sic], an incorrect subsequent spelling. A critical evaluation of the bibliography and of the original label (which was written by the author) showed the correct way of writing and the precise type locality, which is presented here for the first time.

The Rowlandius dumitrescoae species group is reviewed and rediagnosed, and its composition is revised. The group now includes R. cousinensis, R. decui, R. dumitrescoae, R. insignis, R. linsduarte, R. monensis, R. peckorum, R. potiguar, R. sul, R. ubajara, and R. pedrosoi sp. n. A new species is described from a cave in northeast Brazil (Santa Quité...

A new species of Charinus is described and illustrated from the Brazilian Atlantic Forest. Charinus ruschii sp. n. is found in Santa Lúcia reserve, Espírito Santo state, and is sympatric with C. brasilianus and C. montanus. The new species can be easily distinguished from the other species of the genus by the combination of the following characters...

A new species of Charinus is described from Israel and new localities for C. ioanniticus are reported. Charinus israelensis sp. nov. is a cave dwelling species with extremely small median eyes, no median tubercle and reduced lateral eyes. It is similar to C. ioanniticus, which occurs in nearby areas, but can be differentiated by the shape of the ca...

Central America is rich in whip spider species, mainly of the genera Phrynus and Paraphrynus (Phrynidae), but also includes few registers of Charinus (Charinidae) with no description of taxa. In this paper two new species of Charinus from Belize are described and illustrated (Charinus belizensis sp. nov. and Charinus reddelli sp. nov.) being the fi...

Eight new species of Charinus Simon, 1892 are described for the Brazilian Amazon, from the states of Pará (C. bichuetteae sp. n., C. bonaldoi sp. n., C. carajas sp. n., C. ferreus sp. n., C. guto sp. n. and C. orientalis sp. n.) and Amazonas (Charinus brescoviti sp. n. and C. ricardoi sp. n.). All new species can be differentiated from the other sp...

The homology of three somatic systems in Schizomida is studied yielding the following results: (1) proposal of homology and chaetotaxy of abdominal setae in Surazomus; (2) revision of the cheliceral chaetotaxy in Schizomida, with suggestion of new homology scheme between Hubbardiidae and Protoschizomidae, description of a new group of setae in Hubb...

Three new species of Macrelmis Motschulsky, 1859 are described and illustrated based on adult males from Rio de Janeiro, Minas Gerais and São Paulo states (southeastern Brazil). A new species groups definition is proposed for the genus, with a redefinition of the former six (aristeae sp. group, celsa sp. group, isus sp. group, granigera sp. group,...

Chicken gizzard was tested as an alternative to beef diet for creating Chrysomya megacephala (Fabricius) to reduce costs and optimize the time of diet preparation and maintenance of the colony diet. Forty newly hatched larvae were placed in 100 grams of diet: gizzard and meat (control). The experiment was performed in triplicate. The mass of mature...

Considering only the two major American publishers of comics, DC Comics and Marvel Comics, we hold an inventory of the characters in some way inspired in the subphylum Crustacea. They had their features compared with the morphology of real animals, and were classified according to the publisher, the social role (hero or villain), the taxonomic clas...

This article compares arachnid-based Marvel and DC comics characters. The composition of a comic book character often has interesting ‘real-life’ influences. Given the strong connection between arachnids (especially spiders, scorpions and mites, all belonging to the zoological class Arachnida) and human beings it is not surprising that they have in...

The composition of a comic book character often has interesting real-life influences. Given the strong connection between insects and human beings, it is not surprising that they have inspired many fictional characters. We conduct an inventory of the characters that somehow have been inspired by insects, considering only the two major American comi...

Amblypygi is a small order with a worldwide distribution. The family Phrynichidae is one of the most diverse of the order. The genera of Phrynichidae inhabit Africa, India, Southeast Asia, and the neotropics. Trichodamon is the only representative of the family in the New World, and is composed by two valid species, T. princeps and T. froesi, which...

In this article we introduce some important concepts about the relevance of the study and cataloging of Brazilian biodiversity, bringing a discussion of the importance of knowledge about it and its environmental, economic and social consequences. We also discuss some challenges experienced daily by researchers to build this knowledge, as well as it...

The genus Austrolimnius Carter & Zeck has its greatest known diversity in Oceania, but its fauna in the Americas is poorly known. In this paper, two new species—Austrolimnius uncatus sp. nov. and A. bocainensis sp. nov.—are described and illus-trated based on adult specimens collected at Serra da Bocaina National Park, São José do Barreiro Municipa...

A new species of the genus Sarax Simon, 1892 is described from Panay Island, Philippines. Sarax curioi sp. n. is the second species of the genus from the country and can be distinguished from the other Philippine species (Sarax brachydactylus Simon, 1892) by the sclerotized granules of the pedipalp surface, the spines of the pedipalp distitibia, th...

Biogeography is the discipline that explains the distribution of groups of organisms, or taxa, on the surface of the earth. The historical biogeography studies past agents using distributional patterns of species and supra-specific taxa generated by processes that operate on a large scale and takes thousands of years. The rapid changes in the histo...

A new species of the genus Charinus—C. vulgaris— is described from Porto Velho, Rondônia. This is the first record of the family Charinidae from the Brazilian Amazonia and of a synanthropic species in South America. Additionally, two new records of the genus for Brazil are made and a key to the Brazilian species of the genus is given.