Sarax israelensis (Miranda, Aharon, Gavish-Regev, Giupponi and Wizen, 2016)
Sarax israelensis is a species of whip-spider, endemic to the Galilee and Golan heights, in northern Isreal. It was found to be a sister species of Sarax ioanniticus (Kritscher, 1959), which patrially overlaps it in distribution.
Both species are small amblypygids with a conservative morphology, but S. israelensis is distinguished by reduced eyes (sometimes lacking altogether), as well as reatively wider cephalothorax and smaller number of spines on the pedipalps. Untill recently, both were
photo by: Shlomi Aharon
An eyeless individual from the Golan Heights
Included in the genus Charinus Simon, 1892. Not much is known about the ecology of this species. It has only been found in abandoned tunnels dug in chalk and basalt.
To date, only females were found. As this is also the case with S. ioanniticus, both are suspected to be parthenogenetic, at least in Israeli populations.
Distribution map
Accession in GENBANK:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/labs/data-hub/taxonomy/2935095/
Accession in the World Arachnida Catalog:
Taxonomic Classification
Class: Arachnida
Order: Amblypygi
Family: Charinidae
Genus: Sarax
Species: Sarax israelensis
Authors: Miranda, Aharon, Gavish-Regev, Giupponi & Wizen
Articles about Sarax israelensis:
Miranda, G. S., Aharon, S., Gavish-Regev, E., Giupponi, A. P., & Wizen, G. (2016). A new species of Charinus Simon, 1892 (Arachnida: Amblypygi: Charinidae) from Israel and new records of C. ioanniticus (Kritscher, 1959). European Journal of Taxonomy, 234, 1-17.
Ecological Classification
Category: Troglobite
Cave zone: In dark zone
Microhabitat: On walls, ceiling, under stones
Gavish-Regev, E., Aharon, S., Armiach Steinpress, I., Seifan, M., & Lubin, Y. (2021). A Primer on Spider Assemblages in Levantine Caves: The Neglected Subterranean Habitats of the Levant—A Biodiversity Mine. Diversity, 13(5), 179.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/d13050179
Baker, C. M., Ballesteros, J. A., Aharon, S., Gainett, G., Steinpress, I. A., Wizen, G., Sharma, P., & Gavish-Regev, E. (2022). Recent speciation and phenotypic plasticity within a parthenogenetic lineage of levantine whip spiders (Chelicerata: Amblypygi: Charinidae). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 175, 107560.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ympev.2022.107560