Variation of morphological diagnostic characters of Platybunus pallidus Šilhavý, 1938 (Opiliones) (Senckenberg Natural History Museum Frankfurt)(mobility grant no.218⁄2019);

Platybunus genus (Opiliones: Phalangiidae) comprises 7 species distributed manly in Europe (https://fauna-eu.org/). Six species occur in Romania (Babalean, 2005). Also from Romania, in 2014 a new species belonging to Platybunus genus was described, i.e., P. banarascui (Babalean, 2004). The diagnostic characters used for Platybunus species identification are the male genitalia structures, body (dorsum), ocularum, chelicerae and pedipalps characteristics. However, due to doubtful taxonomic state of some species (Murányi & Lengyel 2006) and because some specimens show interspecific similarities a taxonomic revision of the genus Platybunus, especially populations from the Carpathian arch, is need (Murányi & Lengyel 2006, Babalean, 2016, 2018). The objective of the project was to study the intraspecific variation and taxonomic value of the characters used in the Platybunus species identification.