A new species of Ditha (Pseudoscorpiones, Chthoniidae, Tridenchthoniinae) from the Western Ghats of India, with an identification key for the genus Author Jeong, Kyung-Hoon Seoul National University, 1, Gwanak-ro, Gwanak-gu, Seoul, 08826, Republic of Korea & National Institute of Biological Resources, Species Diversity Research Division, Environmental Research Complex, Hwangyeong-ro 42, Seo-gu, Incheon, 22689, Republic of Korea ds16203@snu.ac.kr Author Harms, Danilo https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7189-5345 Museum of Nature Hamburg - Zoology, Leibniz Institute for the Analysis of Biodiversity Change, Martin-Luther-King-Platz 3, Hamburg, 20146, Germany & Harry Butler Institute, Murdoch University, Murdoch, Western Australia; Australian Museum Research Institute, Australian Museum, Sydney, Australia & SARChI Chair on Biodiversity Value and Change, Centre for Invasion Biology, University of Venda, Thohoyandou, South Africa Author Johnson, Jithin https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1511-5110 Museum of Nature Hamburg - Zoology, Leibniz Institute for the Analysis of Biodiversity Change, Martin-Luther-King-Platz 3, Hamburg, 20146, Germany & Sacred Heart College (Autonomous), Thevara, Kerala, 682013, India & St. Joseph's College (Autonomous), Irinjalakuda, Kerala, 680121, India text Zoosystematics and Evolution 2024 2024-01-26 100 1 1 8 http://dx.doi.org/10.3897/zse.100.110020 journal article http://dx.doi.org/10.3897/zse.100.110020 1860-0743-1-1 EF0354EC674D43F9B70ABCB90318DF3C D9FBA907F2B556C38117620799F5BE07 Subfamily Tridenchthoniinae (Balzan, 1892) Remarks. Balzan (1892) proposed the family Tridenchthoniidae to include the species Tridenchthonius parvulus Balzan, 1887 from Paraguay which possessed triple galea in the chelicera. However, Hansen (1894) considered this species to be an unusual Chthonius and reduced the taxon to the subfamily Tridenchthoniinae . Since then, the taxonomic status of the group has undergone several changes. Chamberlin (1929) in his revised classification scheme for pseudoscorpions, proposed a new subfamily Dithinae Chamberlin, 1929 to include the new genus Ditha Chamberlin, 1929. Dithinae chthoniids closely resemble Tridenchthoniinae , except that they include non-galeate forms, but they differ from members of Chthoniinae proper in the characters such as the presence of coxal spines (of single simple type) on coxa I and II and the patella of leg IV being distinctly longer in relation to the femur. Chamberlin (1931) later raised this group to the family status. However, without providing proper justification, Beier (1932) reduced the family to the subfamily status and later to Dithiidae again. However, recognizing Balzan's species T. parvulus as a Dithiidae member, Chamberlin and Chamberlin (1945) proposed the family Dithiidae as a junior synonym of Tridenchthoniidae . Finally, in a recent study on pseudoscorpion transcriptomics ( Benavides et al. 2019 ), the group was again reduced to a subfamily within Chthoniidae that now includes Tridenchthoniinae as a subfamily, alongside the Chthoniinae and Lechytiinae .