Dicranolasmatidae

Dicranolasmatidae
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Arachnida
Order: Opiliones
Suborder: Dyspnoi
Superfamily: Nemastomatoidea
Family: Dicranolasmatidae
Simon, 1879
Genus: Dicranolasma
Sørensen, 1873
Species
see text
Diversity
18 species
Synonyms

Dicranalasma (typo)
Amopaum

The Dicranolasmatidae are a family of harvestmen with 18 described species in a single genus.

Description

Species of Dicranolasma range in body length from three to 6.4 mm. Most parts of the body are encrusted with soil particles. The anterior region features a large headlike "hood" with the eyes in center, which consists of two curved processes. The chelicerae and pedipalps are both hidden under the hood in adults and about half as long as the body. The legs are short. Immature forms are quite different from adults. The immature form of D. opilionoides was even described as a different genus (Amopaum). The hood develops only gradually, so in young Dicranolasma the relatively longer pedipalps are carried outside the hood.[1]

Distribution

Dicranolasmatidae occur mainly in the Mediterranean region northward to the southern Alps, the Carpathians, eastward to the Caucasus and Iraq, the Levant and southward to western North Africa.[1]

Relationships

The Dicranolasmatidae are closely related to the Trogulidae and Nemastomatidae, with Trogulus probably sister to Dicranolasma.[1]

The genus consists of five species groups:[2][3]

Name

The genus name Dicranolasma is a combination of Ancient Greek dikranos "two-headed" and elasma "plate", referring to the hood.[1]

Species

Footnotes

  1. 1 2 3 4 Gruber, Jürgen (2007): Dicranolasmatidae Simon, 1879. In: Pinto-da-Rocha et al. 2007: 142ff
  2. 1 2 Bayram & Çorak 2007
  3. ↑ Gruber 1998
  4. 1 2 3 4 Fauna Italia: Dicranolasmatidae
  5. ↑ Joel Hallan's Biology Catalog

References

Further reading

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