Sexing and ID Amblypygids help

[Kimora]

Just had this beautiful tailless whip scorpion and will like to know the sp and gender if possible

thanks for your answers!

 

[Sikalisko]

Looks like Damon medius male to me.

There's some reflection on the private parts so it's hard to tell for sure if it is a male and has the ventral sac covers though. Presence of ventral sac covers would put it into western group of Damon species, and D. medius seems to be the most common one in the markets from this group.

It's easy to see from the first photo that it's not D. johnstonii. Banshee05 has some photos of this species with its frontal process visible (I've found his posts very useful sources of info in general, among few other Amblypygi gurus, so I highly recommend using the search function with his nickname). Here's some additional photos showing that anatomical feature between the chelicerae, on the margin of the carapace:
https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/919291-Damon-johnstonii/browse_photos
https://www.webberphotography.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/090225-065.jpg

For ventral sac covers, I posted this photo on another thread where I was trying to identify my own whip spiders and found a parasite on one of them. The thing you want to confirm are two "flaps" that are circled with yellow. If you want, compare that area with some confirmed D. diadema and D. medius photos to figure out what's the visual difference. At least it helped me quite a lot when I realized what I was supposed to take photos of

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The colouration might vary between populations of the same species, but I remember reading on this forum that some users noticed there seems to be often different number of bands on the walking legs: D. diadema often has three while D. medius has two light coloured bands. I'll try to find the original post tomorrow or day after that, to give credits to the right person.

Edit: Here's also link that tells how to determine the sex of Prynichidae. The reddish hair on females was much easier to see on my D. medius than on the example photos of two other species shown on that site:
http://www.panarthropoda.com/sub/allgemeines/phrynichidaefamilieen.php

 

[Kimora]

Looks like Damon medius male to me.

There's some reflection on the private parts so it's hard to tell for sure if it is a male and has the ventral sac covers though. Presence of ventral sac covers would put it into western group of Damon species, and D. medius seems to be the most common one in the markets from this group.

It's easy to see from the first photo that it's not D. johnstonii. Banshee05 has some photos of this species with its frontal process visible (I've found his posts very useful sources of info in general, among few other Amblypygi gurus, so I highly recommend using the search function with his nickname). Here's some additional photos showing that anatomical feature between the chelicerae, on the margin of the carapace:
https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/919291-Damon-johnstonii/browse_photos
https://www.webberphotography.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/090225-065.jpg

For ventral sac covers, I posted this photo on another thread where I was trying to identify my own whip spiders and found a parasite on one of them. The thing you want to confirm are two "flaps" that are circled with yellow. If you want, compare that area with some confirmed D. diadema and D. medius photos to figure out what's the visual difference. At least it helped me quite a lot when I realized what I was supposed to take photos of



The colouration might vary between populations of the same species, but I remember reading on this forum that some users noticed there seems to be often different number of bands on the walking legs: D. diadema often has three while D. medius has two light coloured bands. I'll try to find the original post tomorrow or day after that, to give credits to the right person.

Edit: Here's also link that tells how to determine the sex of Prynichidae. The reddish hair on females was much easier to see on my D. medius than on the example photos of two other species shown on that site:
http://www.panarthropoda.com/sub/allgemeines/phrynichidaefamilieen.php

Wow what an answer! Hihi thank you so much for all the info and links

 

[aphono]

Yea, D. medius. Another major ID factor is how this species has been dominating the mid-large sized amblypygi market via imports. Almost every other species are usually available only as (CB)tiny little babies.

an aside- recommend keeping it in extreme humidity conditions for a couple weeks- pour water in substrate and mist hard the whole enclosure. It seems to be in okay condition other than the coloration seems to be a bit dark- very common with imports. Medius in good condition have distinctly brown and tan shades.