Why does the Tricommatinae position bounce so much within Laniatores? A cladistic analysis, with description of a new family of Gonyleptoidea (Opiliones, Laniatores)

Files

Link to Full Text

Download Full Text

Publication Date

August 2014

Publication Title

Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society

Volume Number

172

Issue Number

1

Abstract

The first cladistic analysis of the T ricommatinae is presented here based on a matrix with 88 terminals and 117 characters. The subfamily, hitherto with 28 genera and 53 species, is not recovered as a clade, instead it is composed of two nonsister clades, corresponding to the two main physiognomies of T ricommatinae sensu lato : (1) most of the diversity of the T ricommatinae, including the emblematic genera C ryptogeobius M ello‐L eitão, 1935, and P seudopachylus R oewer, 1912, and (2) the less familiar species, including the type genus T ricommatus R oewer, 1912, plus a few relatives, totalling three genera with five species. The T ricommatinae sensu stricto are here reduced to their bare core, nested within G onyleptidae, whereas C ryptogeobiidae fam. nov. is more basally placed within the G onyleptoidea. The holotype and sole available material of T ricommatus brasiliensis R oewer, 1912, type species of T ricommatus , is restudied and is here redescribed and illustrated. P herania S trand, 1942, is herein considered a junior subjective synonym of T ricommatus and a key is given to the species of T ricommatus . V oriax gen. nov. of T ricommatinae is described along with the type species V oriax popeye sp. nov. , an unusual species from B ahia, showing strange sexual dimorphism. Some changes have been introduced in the taxonomy of C ryptogeobiidae: (1) 13 genera are synonymized (two of them, B erlesecaptus M ello‐L eitão, 1940, and Simonoleptes , originally in Phalangodidae); (2) 18 new combinations are made; (3) a neotype is designated for the type species B erlesecaptus convexus M ello‐L eitão, 1940; (4) a new miniature species, P aratricommatus lockei sp. nov. , is described from an area of conservation, R eserva E cológica de G uapi‐A çu, in R io de J aneiro state, south‐eastern B razil.

Keywords

T Ricommatinae, C Ryptogeobius, V Oriax Gen. Nov., C Ryptogeobiidae Fam. Nov., P Aratricommatus Lockei Sp. Nov, V Oriax Gen. Nov

Geographic Subject

Brazil

Document Type

Article

Language

English

Identifier

SFS0060999_00001

Share

 
COinS