The Icaleptidae are a small family of

neotropical The Neotropical realm is one of the eight biogeographic realms constituting Earth's land surface. Physically, it includes the tropical terrestrial ecoregions of the Americas and the entire South American temperate zone. Definition In bioge ...

harvestmen 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 extan ...

within the suborder

Laniatores Laniatores is the largest suborder of the arachnid order Opiliones with over 4,000 described species worldwide. The majority of the species are highly dependent on humid environments and usually correlated with tropical and temperate forest habit ...

. Although only two species have been described, many more are probably to be discovered.Kury & Pérez 2002

Name

The name of the type genus is combined from Ica, a

Chibchan The Chibchan languages (also Chibchan, Chibchano) make up a language family indigenous to the Isthmo-Colombian Area, which extends from eastern Honduras to northern Colombia and includes populations of these countries as well as Nicaragua, Costa ...

people inhabiting the slopes of

Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta The Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta (English: ''Snow-Covered Mountain Range of Saint Martha'') is an isolated mountain range in northern Colombia, separate from the Andes range that runs through the north of the country. Reaching an elevation of ...

, and the second half of the genus '' Gonyleptes'' (

Gonyleptidae Gonyleptidae is a neotropical family of harvestmen (Order Opiliones) with more than 800 species, the largest in the Suborder Laniatores and the second largest of the Opiliones as a whole. The largest known harvestmen are gonyleptids. Like most h ...

), the first described harvestman in

. (2007): Icaleptidae. Kury & Pérez G., 2002. In: Pinto-da-Rocha ''et al.'' 2007: 205ff

Description

The two described species have their fourth pair of legs ventrally inserted, giving them a

flea Flea, the common name for the order Siphonaptera, includes 2,500 species of small flightless insects that live as external parasites of mammals and birds. Fleas live by ingesting the blood of their hosts. Adult fleas grow to about long, a ...

-like habitus.

Distribution

Although Icaleptidae have until now only been described from

Ecuador Ecuador ( ; ; Quechua: ''Ikwayur''; Shuar: ''Ecuador'' or ''Ekuatur''), officially the Republic of Ecuador ( es, República del Ecuador, which literally translates as "Republic of the Equator"; Quechua: ''Ikwadur Ripuwlika''; Shuar: ''Eku ...

(

Cotopaxi Cotopaxi () is an active stratovolcano in the Andes Mountains, located in Latacunga city of Cotopaxi Province, about south of Quito, and northeast of the city of Latacunga, Ecuador. It is the second highest summit in Ecuador, reaching a ...

) and northern Colombia (Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta), they are expected to occur in

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 ...

. Both species were found in leaf litter. The type material of the two species was collected in 1968 (''I. malkini'') and 1993 (''Z. platnicki'').

Relationships

This new family is closely related to

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 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, ...

. Some species that now reside in other families, such as '' Phalangodinella'' (Zalmoxidae) share similarities with the species in Icaleptidae. It is possible that several species now in other families will be transferred here.

Species

* '' Icaleptes'' Kury & Pérez, 2002 :* '' Icaleptes malkini'' Kury & Pérez, 2002 * '' Zalmopsylla'' Kury & Pérez, 2002 :* '' Zalmopsylla platnicki'' Kury & Pérez, 2002

Footnotes

References

* Joel Hallan's Biology Catalog
Icaleptidae
* (2002): A new family of Laniatores from northwestern South America (Arachnida, Opiliones). '' Revista Ibérica de Aracnología'' 6: 3-11
PDF
* (eds.) (2007): Harvestmen - The Biology of Opiliones. ''Harvard University Press'' {{Taxonbar, from=Q3147577 Harvestman families