A karyological study of four European species of Roncus (Pseudoscorpiones: Neobisiidae)

Abstract

We present the results of the first study on the karyotypes of four European species of Roncus: Roncus alpinus L. Koch, 1873, Roncus lubricus L. Koch, 1873, Roncus transsilvanicus Beier, 1928 and Roncus sp. The diploid number was 2n = 23 in Roncus sp., 2n = 43 in R. alpinus and R. transsilvanicus and 2n = 45 in R. lubricus. Telocentric autosomes predominate in species with a high chromosome number and metacentric autosomes in Roncus sp. We assume that the ancestral situation for this genus is a high number of chromosomes. A low number of chromosomes is very likely a consequence of centric fusions, which have possibly played a very important role in karyotype evolution in the genus Roncus. All the species analyzed have the X0 sex chromosome system. The X chromosome is metacentric and is the smallest element in the karyotypes of all the species analyzed.