The Zalmoxidae are a family of

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 ext ...

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 ...

Name

Zalmoxis Zalmoxis ( grc-gre, Ζάλμοξις) also known as Salmoxis (Σάλμοξις), Zalmoxes (Ζάλμοξες), Zamolxis (Ζάμολξις), Samolxis (Σάμολξις), Zamolxes (Ζάμολξες), or Zamolxe (Ζάμολξε) is a divinity of the ...

is the name of a

Thracian The Thracians (; grc, Θρᾷκες ''Thrāikes''; la, Thraci) were an Indo-European speaking people who inhabited large parts of Eastern and Southeastern Europe in ancient history.. "The Thracians were an Indo-European people who occupied t ...

god.

Description

Zalmoxidae are small Laniatores of dark brown to dark yellow color with varied darker mottling. Some small

edaphic Edaphology (from Greek , ''edaphos'', "ground",, '' -logia'') is concerned with the influence of soils on living beings, particularly plants. It is one of two main divisions of soil science, the other being pedology. Edaphology includes the stu ...

species are pale yellowish. Males of varies species bear sexually dimorphic and embellished armature, particularly in the fourth walking leg.

Distribution

Members of this family are distributed in the tropics on opposite sides of the Pacific Ocean, as well as Melanesian archipelagoes and some Micronesian islands. Zalmoxidae do not occur in mainland

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

Madagascar Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, links=no, ; french: République de Madagascar), is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately off the coast of East Africa ...

. In the Neotropics, most species occur from

Costa Rica Costa Rica (, ; ; literally "Rich Coast"), officially the Republic of Costa Rica ( es, República de Costa Rica), is a country in the Central American region of North America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the no ...

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 ...

, with a center of diversity 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 ...

. In the Indo-Pacific, many species in

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu Hiri Motu, also known as Police Motu, Pidgin Motu, or just Hiri, is a language of Papua New Guinea, which is spoken in surrounding areas of Port Moresby (Capital of Papua New Guinea). It is a simplified version of ...

. Two species are found in the

Seychelles Seychelles (, ; ), officially the Republic of Seychelles (french: link=no, République des Seychelles; Creole: ''La Repiblik Sesel''), is an archipelagic state consisting of 115 islands in the Indian Ocean. Its capital and largest city, V ...

and

Mauritius Mauritius ( ; french: Maurice, link=no ; mfe, label=Mauritian Creole, Moris ), officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean about off the southeast coast of the African continent, east of Madagascar. It incl ...

Systematics

For a list of currently described species, see the

List of Zalmoxidae species This is a list of the described species of the harvestman family Zalmoxidae. Data on Neotropical species is mostly taken from Joel Hallan's Biology Catalog. Data on Indo-Pacific species is taken from the Sharma et al. (2011) Zootaxa catalog. * ''A ...

Relationships

Zalmoxidae is sister to

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, ...

, with this clade in turn sister to

Icaleptidae The Icaleptidae are a small family of neotropical harvestmen within the suborder Laniatores. 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 fr ...

. The families

Kimulidae Kimulidae is a small neotropical family of the harvestman infraorder Grassatores with about thirty described species. (2007): Kimulidae. Kury & Pérez in Kury, 2003. In: Pinto-da-Rocha ''et al.'' 2007: 207ff Description These brown harvestmen dw ...

Escadabiidae Escadabiidae is a small neotropical family of the harvestman infraorder Grassatores with six described species. (2007): Escadabiidae Kury & Pérez in Kury, 2003. In: Pinto-da-Rocha ''et al.'' 2007: 191ff Description Escadabiidae are about three ...

, and

Guasiniidae The Guasiniidae are a family of harvestman with three described species from South America. It is, together with the Fissiphalliidae and the Ogoveidae, one of the least diverse harvestman families. The family is probably closely related to the ...

are the other members of the superfamily Zalmoxoidea.

References

* Joel Hallan's Biology Catalog
Zalmoxidae
*Kury, A.B., & Pérez González, A. (2007). "Zalmoxidae Sørensen, 1886." In: Pinto-da-Rocha, Machado, Giribet (eds.) Harvestmen - The Biology of Opiliones. Harvard University Press. *Sharma, P.P. (2012). "New Australasian Zalmoxidae (Opiliones: Laniatores) and a new case of male polymorphism in Opiliones." Zootaxa 3236: 1-35. *Sharma, P.P., Buenavente, P.A.C., Clouse, R.M., Diesmos, A.C., & Giribet, G. (2012). "Forgotten gods: Zalmoxidae of the Philippines and Borneo (Opiliones: Laniatores)." Zootaxa 3280: 29-55. *Sharma, P.P., & Giribet, G. (2012). "Out of the Neotropics: Late Cretaceous colonization of Australasia by American arthropods." Proceedings of the Royal Society B 279: 3501-3509. *Sharma, P.P., Kury, A.B., & Giribet, G. (2011). "Zalmoxidae (Arachnida: Opiliones: Laniatores) of the Paleotropics: a catalogue of Southeast Asian and Indo-Pacific species." Zootaxa 2972: 37-58. {{Taxonbar, from=Q3574694 Harvestmen Arthropods of Central America Harvestman families