The Guasiniidae are a family of
harvestman
The Opiliones (formerly Phalangida) are an order of arachnids colloquially known as harvestmen, harvesters, harvest spiders, or daddy longlegs. , over 6,650 species of harvestmen have been discovered worldwide, although the total number of ext ...
with three described species from
South America
South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...
.
It is, together with the
Fissiphalliidae
The Fissiphalliidae are a small neotropical family of harvestmen within the suborder Laniatores.
Name
The name of the type genus is combined from Latin ''fissus'' "split" and Ancient Greek ''phallos'' "penis". (2007): Fissiphalliidae Martensen, ...
and the
Ogoveidae, one of the least diverse harvestman families.
The family is probably closely related to the
Zalmoxidae
The Zalmoxidae are a family of harvestmen within the suborder Laniatores.
Name
Zalmoxis is the name of a Thracian god.
Description
Zalmoxidae are small Laniatores of dark brown to dark yellow color with varied darker mottling. Some small edaphi ...
and Fissiphalliidae.
All described species in this family are completely eyeless (
anophthalmic
Anophthalmia, (Greek: ἀνόφθαλμος, "without eye"), is the medical term for the absence of one or both eyes. Both the globe (human eye) and the ocular tissue are missing from the orbit. The absence of the eye will cause a small bony orbi ...
).
González-Sponga found the two first species inside bark under litter, ''G. persephone'' was also found inside soil, in an inundation-forest of black-water (
igapó
Igapó (, from Old Tupi: "root forest") is a word used in Brazil for blackwater-flooded forests in the Amazon biome. These forests and similar swamp forests are seasonally inundated with freshwater. They typically occur along the lower reaches of ...
) at
Tarumã-Mirim, near the mouth of
Rio Negro, 20 km upstream from
Manaus
Manaus () is the capital and largest city of the Brazilian state of Amazonas. It is the seventh-largest city in Brazil, with an estimated 2020 population of 2,219,580 distributed over a land area of about . Located at the east center of the s ...
. The region is flooded for almost half a year.
Current research suggests that the two described genera should be merged into one.
Species
* ''
Guaiquinimia''
González-Sponga, 1997
:* ''
Guaiquinimia longipes''
González-Sponga, 1997 (
Venezuela
Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...
)
* ''
Guasinia''
González-Sponga, 1997
:* ''
Guasinia delgadoi''
González-Sponga, 1997 (Venezuela)
:* ''
Guasinia persephone''
Pinto-da-Rocha & Kury, 2003 (
Brazil
Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
)
References
* 's Biology Catalog
Guasiniidae* (2003): Third species of Guasiniidae (Opiliones, Laniatores) with comments on familial relationships. ''Journal of Arachnology'' 31(3): 394-399
PDF
Harvestman families
{{Opiliones-stub