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Systematics, phylogeny and biogeography
RESEARCH ARTICLE

A new Indo-Malayan family of Grassatores (Arachnida : Opiliones : Laniatores)

Adriano B. Kury https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8334-6204 A D E , Abel Pérez-González B D and Daniel N. Proud https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1842-6395 B C D
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A Departamento de Invertebrados, Museu Nacional/UFRJ, Quinta da Boa Vista, São Cristóvão, 20.940-040, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil.

B División Aracnología, Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales ‘Bernardino Rivadavia’, Av. Angel Gallardo 470, C1405DJR Buenos Aires, Argentina.

C Present address: Department of Biological Sciences, Moravian College, 1200 Main Street, Bethlehem, PA 18018, USA.

D These authors contributed equally to this work.

E Corresponding author. Email: adrianok@gmail.com

Invertebrate Systematics 33(6) 892-906 https://doi.org/10.1071/IS19035
Submitted: 19 June 2019  Accepted: 20 June 2019   Published: 16 December 2019

Abstract

The laniatorean family Phalangodidae has been largely reduced to a core of Holarctic species; however, many taxa were never formally transferred to other families. We examined a group of harvestmen related to Beloniscus Thorell, 1891, from South-east Asia and determined the nature of the relationships of the ‘Beloniscus-like harvestmen’, herein described as the new family Beloniscidae, fam. nov., in the broad context of Laniatores. Based on a molecular phylogenetic analysis of a broad representative laniatorean Sanger-sequences dataset we found support for our taxonomic hypotheses that (1) inclusion of Beloniscidae, fam. nov. in Phalangodidae would render the family non-monophyletic, and (2) Beloniscidae, fam. nov. represents a lineage that is morphologically and genetically distinct from all other known laniatorean families. The new family Beloniscidae is endemic to South-east Asia and comprises 37 species in two new subfamilies: Beloniscinae, subfam. nov. and Buparinae, subfam. nov. Beloniscinae includes the genera Beloniscellus Roewer, 1931, Beloniscops Roewer, 1949, Belonisculus Roewer, 1923, Beloniscus (type genus) and Kendengus Roewer, 1949. Buparinae includes the genera Buparellus Roewer, 1949, Bupares Thorell, 1889 (type genus) and Buparomma Roewer, 1949. Members of Beloniscidae are relatively homogeneous in their external morphology, but are recognised by well marked genitalic features. Male genitalia are described for exemplar species, and the morphology is compared with that of Epedanidae. Names are given to two new genitalic structures: sella curulis and pseudocalyx.

http://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:540BCE49-6F2E-4372-BFD4-D3C6068F045D

http://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:FE8B011B-AA6D-4E6C-A321-123542A0563F

http://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:E4A559CD-170A-40F2-924A-541C22974344


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