Diguetinus Roewer 1912

Genus Diguetinus Roewer, 1912

Diguetinus Roewer 1912: 271–273, pl. 1 fig. 25; 1923: 863, fig. 1030; 1956: 252. Bronn 1932: 7, fig. 9b. Di Caporiacco 1938: 280. Goodnight & Goodnight 1942: 15. Roewer 1956: 252. Weidner 1959: 121. Gruber 1969: 273. Cokendolpher 1984: 27–28. Cokendolpher & Lee 1993: 16. Crawford 1992: 17. Kury & Cokendolpher 2000: 150–151, 153; 2020: 52–54.

Type and only species. Diguetinus raptator Roewer, 1912.

Diagnosis. Diguetinus is a genus of large bodied, darkly colored harvestmen of medium leg lengths that are only found in central Mexico. They are characterized by having a smooth palpal claw with a small, conical, basal denticle, and the presence of longitudinal rows of denticles running across the dorsum of each tergite of the opisthosoma. These denticles are not in a single row but rather with random to at least two tubercles per row. The penis is easily recognized, the alae of the truncus is curved around the glans and the glans itself is slightly bent in relation to the axis of the shaft. The stylus is coiled making a complete circle.

Etymology. Named after the French naturalist Léon Diguet who collected the first specimens of this genus [Diguet + Latin suffix - inus]. The generic name is masculine in gender.

Comments. Thus far the genus is known by only one described species. There are other known, large bodied species that might be reconsidered and transferred to Diguetinus. These are currently placed in Metopilio. Leptobunus spinulatus Banks, 1898 (currently listed in Metopilio - Kury & Cokendolpher 2000) is included in this group. Their penes are similar to that of Diguetinus and they mostly differ by differences in tuberculation, spination, and not as greatly modified leg I. With that in mind, the descriptions presented here are detailed in description of structures which might be useful in comparisons in the future. Some photographs on i-Naturalist suggest that there are possibly other species (different colors, patterns, distributions). These are not considered further because no preserved material (especially males) is available for study. Figure 1 was created by extracting locality information from the internet resource iNaturalist. Specimens identified as Diguetinus (not necessarily raptator) as well as localities from which specimens were examined by us are presented below under “Biogeography and distribution”. These records are accepted as long as the image and locality appear reasonable (i.e., records from the USA and other distant localities were excluded because they were obviously misidentified).