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Podoctidae

Podoctidae is a family of the harvestman infraorder Grassatores with about 130 described species.

Description

Body length ranges from 2.5 to 5 millimeters, with leg length ranging from three to almost thirty mm. While most species are brown to yellow, some are deep green. The legs may be ringed in black and yellow. The penis is uniquely built.

Distribution

Most species occur in Southeast Asia, especially in New Guinea. Others are found in Melanesia, Micronesia, Japan, India and Sri Lanka, Madagascar, the Seychelles and Mauritius, and central Africa. Ibantila cubana was introduced in a botanical garden in Cuba. Although one Podoctidae was described from Brazil in 1938, it was later transferred to Triaenonychidae. The oldest known member of the family is Burmalomanius from the mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber of Myanmar.

Relationships

Although Podoctidae are currently included in Samooidea, and are surely Grassatores, there is no obvious relationship with any family.

Name

The name of the type genus is derived from Ancient Greek podos "foot" and oktis "spine", referring to the ventral row of long spines in femur I.

Genera

A detailed list of included species is HERE, which along with generic list below are derived from (as of mid. 2024) the World Catalog of Opiliones. Older versions were largely from the now defunct Joel Hallan's Biology Catalog.

Erecananinae

Ibaloniinae

Podoctinae

Footnotes

For Dino <small>Loman 1892 [in Weber]</small> see Epedanidae. For Japetus <small>Roewer, 1949</small> see above under Borneojapetus Özdikmen, 2006.

References

Further reading:

  • (eds.) (2007): Harvestmen - The Biology of Opiliones. Harvard University Press

External links