The Arachnid Order Solifugae

PHYLOGENY/TAXONOMY

Genus Rhagodalma
Genus Rhagodax
Genus Rhagodeca
Genus Rhagodelbus
Genus Rhagoderma
Genus Rhagoderus
Genus Rhagodes
Genus Rhagodessa
Genus Rhagodeya
Genus Rhagodia
Genus Rhagodima
Genus Rhagodinus
Genus Rhagodippa
Genus Rhagodira
Genus Rhagodista
Genus Rhagoditta
Genus Rhagodixa
Genus Rhagodoca
Genus Rhagodolus
Genus Rhagodomma
Genus Rhagodopa
Genus Rhagodorimus
Genus Rhagodorta
Genus Rhagodospus
Genus Rhagoduja
Genus Rhagodula
Genus Rhagoduna

Family

Pocock 1897

Rhagodinae Pocock, 1897a: 250 (key), 252; Kraepelin 1899a: 208-209; Pocock 1900a: 147; Kraepelin 1901: 30.
Rhagodidae Pocock: Roewer 1933: 264-267; Kästner 1933-1935: 295; Birula 1938: 11, 17; Roewer 1941: 100-101; Roewer, 1960: 4-5; Kaestner 1968: 225; Muma 1976: 8; Muma 1982: 103; EI-Hennawy, 1990: 21.

Unidentified rhagodid - Kenya ©Edward S. Ross

Unidentified rhagodid - India ©Sunny Patil

Members of the family Rhagodidae are readily distinguished from other members of the order Solifugae by the unique hemispherical form of their anal segment and their ventrally located anus (terminally located in all other groups of solifuges). Rhagodids are heavy-bodied and short-legged. Many are brightly or contrastingly colored. The cheliceral dentition is well developed in both sexes. The flagellum (present only on males) is paraxially immovable and consists of two flattened, curled setae that form a curved, truncate horn-like tube on the mesal surface of the chelicera.

Rhagodids are distributed from northern Africa through southwestern Asia. The 98 known species are placed within 27 genera: Rhagodalma (1 species - Sudan), Rhagodax (1 species - Jordan), Rhagodeca (3 species - Israel, Oman, Syria, Yemen), Rhagodelbus (1 species - Uzbekistan), Rhagoderma (3 species - India, Israel, Pakistan), Rhagoderus (1 species - Israel), Rhagodes (27 species - Afghanistgan, Azerbaijan, Egypt, Israel, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Yemen), Rhagodessa (5 species - Eritrea, Israel, Sudan, Syria), Rhagodeya (2 species - Libya, Sudan), Rhagodia (4 species - Ethiopia, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, Turkey), Rhagodima (2 species - India), Rhagodinus (2 species - Ethiopia, Iraq, Israel), Rhagodippa (1 species - Djibouti), Rhagodira (3 species - Afghanistan, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia), Rhagodista (1 species - Iran), Rhagoditta (6 species - Algeria, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Iran, Israel, Pakistan, Somalia, Tunisia), Rhagodixa (3 species - Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Pakistan), Rhagodoca (17 species - Djibouti, Ethiopia, Iran, Kenya, Pakistan, Somalia, Uganda), Rhagodolus (1 species - Gambia, Nigeria), Rhagodomma (1 species - India), Rhagodopa (4 species - India, Iran, Israel, Kyrgyzstan, Nepal, Pakistan), Rhagodorimus (1 species - Israel), Rhagodorta (1 species - Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia), Rhagodospsus (1 species - Iraq), Rhagoduja (1 species - Iran), Rhagodula (1 species - Israel), and Rhagoduna (4 species - Iran, Pakistan, Somalia, Sudan, Syria). No subfamilies are recognized.

Original Description: Pocock 1897a (as Rhagodinae. a subfamily of Solpugidae) - "This group is established for the reception of the single genus hitherto known as Rhax, for which I propose the new name Rhagodes, the term Rhax having been up till now used by myself and others in a sense inadmissible according to the rules of nomenclature I adopt (vide supra under (Galeodes). Like Biton and Galeodes, Rhagodes is also an alien from the Palrearctic Region, being found in abundance all over Persia, Afghanistan, parts of India, and Africa north of the Sahara. On the west of Africa it extends as far south as Gambia and on the east as far as Somaliland, Mombasa, and Masailand." Pocock (ibid,, page 50) ascribed the following characters to Rhagodinae in a key tropical African solifuge familes and subfamilies: "Legs long or short, fourth pair at most weakly spined and considerably longer and stronger than the others, armed with two claws, its coxa and trochanter much shorter than the rest of the appendage and bearing five malleoli on each side in the adult. Abdominal tracheal stigmata visible upon the posterior margin of the second and third sterna, lying in a triangular excision of the plates; claws free from hairs; tarsus of palp immovably fused to the protarsus. Anal segment of large size, transversely elliptical, the anal aperture not extending more than halfway from its lower border towards the dorsal border." He credited Hansen (1893, p. 191) as having first pointed out the latter character.

Subsequent Accounts:

TABULAR KEY TO RHAGODID GENERA [MODIFIED FROM ROEWER (1933a)]

TAXON

VENTRAL SPINE-LIKE SETAE ON TARSI OF LEGS 2 AND 3

VENTRAL SPINE-LIKE SETAE ON TARSUS OF LEG 4

Genus Rhagodes 0 0

Genus Rhagodax 1.1 0

Genus Rhagoduna 0 1.1

Genus Rhagodula 0 1.2

Genus Rhagoduja 1.2 1.1

Genus Rhagodoca
0 1.1.1

Genus Rhagodorta
1.1 1.1.1

Genus Rhagodomma
1.2 1.1.1

Genus Rhagodopa
0 1.2.2

Genus Rhagodospus 1 1.1.1

Genus Rhagodolus
1 1.1.2

Genus Rhagodista 1.2 1.1.2

Genus Rhagoditta
1.1 1.2.2

Genus Rhagodinus
0 2.2.2

Genus Rhagodira
1.1 2.2.2

Genus Rhagodixa
1.2 2.2.2

Genus Rhagodia
2.2.2 2.2.2

Genus Rhagoderus
0 2.2.2.2

Genus Rhagoderma
1.2 1.2.2.2

Genus Rhagodessa
1.2 2.2.2.2

Genus Rhagodippa
1.1.2 1.2.2.2

Genus Rhagodeya
1.2.2 1.1.2.2

Genus Rhagodima
1.2.2 1.2.2.2

Genus Rhagodeca
1.2.2 2.2.2.2

Genus Rhagodelbus 2.2.2 1.2.2.2

Genus Rhagodes
2.2.2 2.2.2.2

Genus Rhagodalma 2.2.2.2 2.2.2.2

Genus Rhagodorimus ? ?

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