Phylogeny of the Neotropical Hypoctonine Whip-Scorpions (Thelyphonida, Thelyphonidae), with Descriptions of Two New Genera and Species

Thelyphonida Blanchard, 1852, also known as vinegaroons or whip-scorpions, is a small arachnid order with 140 described species contained in a single family, Thelyphonidae Lucas, 1835. Despite being conspicuous and widely distributed across the tropics and subtropics on four continents, knowledge of the order has been slow to advance. Hypoctoninae Pocock, 1899, one of four subfamilies currently recognized and one of two represented in the New World, comprises five genera. Since its inception, <i>Thelyphonellus</i> Pocock, 1894 has remained the only hypoctonine genus occurring in South America, with only four species described prior to the present contribution. The first detailed morphological study and phylogenetic analysis of <i>Thelyphonellus</i> is presented herein. The morphological phylogenetic analysis-the first for Thelyphonida-includes all except one of the previously described species of <i>Thelyphonellus</i> in addition to two new species described herein; the species of <i>Ravilops</i> Víquez and Armas, 2005 (from the Caribbean island of Hispaniola); and the monotypic Old World genus <i>Etienneus</i> Heurtault, 1984 (from West Africa) scored for 45 morphological characters. A single, most parsimonious phylogenetic hypothesis revealed that <i>Thelyphonellus</i> is paraphyletic with respect to <i>Ravilops</i>. The New World Hypoctoninae comprises four clades with disjunct distributions and well supported by a combination of morphological characteristics, on the basis of which four genera, two of which are new, are recognized: <i>Ravilops</i>, with two species, endemic to Hispaniola; <i>Thelyphonellus</i>, herein restricted to <i>Thelyphonellus amazonicus</i> (Butler, 1872) and <i>Thelyphonellus ruschii</i> Weygoldt, 1979, occurring in Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana, and northern Brazil; <i>Wounaan</i>, <b>gen. n.</b>, containing <i>Wounaan vanegasae</i> (Giupponi and Vasconcelos, 2008), <b>comb. n.</b> and <i>Wounaan yarigui</i>, <b>sp. n.</b> from Colombia; and <i>Yekuana</i>, <b>gen. n.</b>, containing <i>Yekuana venezolensis</i> (Haupt, 2009), <b>comb. n.</b> and <i>Yekuana wanadi</i>, <b>sp. n.</b> from Venezuela. The two new species are described and illustrated. A key to the identification of the Neotropical genera of Hypoctoninae and a map plotting the known distribution of its species are also presented.