Pettalidae

Taxobox


image_caption =
image_width = 250px
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Arthropoda
classis = Arachnida
ordo = Opiliones
subordo = Cyphophthalmi
superfamilia = Pettaloidea
familia = Pettalidae
familia_authority = Simon, 1879
diversity_link = Pettalidae
diversity = 11 genera, > 40 species
range_

range_map_width = 250px
subdivision_ranks = Genera
subdivision =
synonyms =

The Pettalidae are a family of harvestmen with 52 described species and subspecies in eleven generaBoyer & Giribet 2007] . Several undescribed species are known or assumed in some genera.aut|Giribet, Gonzalo & Boyer, Sarah L. (2007): Pettalidae Shear, 1980. In: Pinto-da-Rocha "et al." 2007: 99ff]

Name

"Pettalus" is a name from Greek mythology that appears in Ovid's Metamorphoses.

Description

All species except the cave-dwelling South African "Speleosiro argasiformis" spend their entire life cycle in leaf litter.

They are two to five millimeters long, usually with an oval shaped body.

Although all Pettalidae except "Parapurcellia" have eyes, these were long thought to be absent in the family, mainly because they cannot be seen by Scanning Electron Microscopy. They are often incorporated at the base of the ozophores and typically lack lenses.

Distribution

The members of this family are distributed throughout former temperate Gondwana, with genera in Chile, South Africa, Madagascar, Sri Lanka, eastern and western Australia, and New Zealand, where they are most diverse by far, with 29 species and subspecies found in three genera.

Relationships

clade|style=font-size:75%;line-height:75%
1=clade
1="Parapurcellia" (eastern South Africa)
2=clade
1="Neopurcellia" (New Zealand)
2=clade
1="Rakaia" (New Zealand)
2="Aoraki" (New Zealand)
3="Purcellia" (western South Africa)
4="Chileogovea" (Chile)
5=clade
1="Karripurcellia" (Western Australia)
2="Pettalus" (Sri Lanka)
6="Austropurcellia" (Queensland)
Phylogeny of most Pettalidae
(after Boyer & Giribet 2007)

The family Pettalidae is monophyletic, although it is at the moment (2007) unclear what the nearest relatives are. It probably originated in the southern part of Gondwana. Parsimony analysis suggests it could be a sister group to the remaining Cyphophthalmi, though this could also be the case for the Stylocellidae, or it could be related to the Sironidae, or specifically to the sironid genus "Suzukielus". It is unrelated to the Troglosironidae that are endemic to New Caledonia.

The main lineages of the family may have arisen rapidly, possibly during the rapid expansion of "Glossopteris" forests that were predominant in temperate Gondwana. Pettalidae were like present throughout the forests of Antarctica, which formed a land bridge between Australia and South America up until circa 50 million years ago (mya).

The Australian genera "Austropurcellia" (Eastern Australia: Queensland) and "Karripurcellia" (Western Australia) are not sister groups. It is possible that the Cyphophthalmi dispersed across Australia while the central region was covered with "Nothofagus" rainforest (until 37 mya), or that the ancestors of the two genera independently dispersed from adjacent landmasses now separate from Australia.

"Parapurcellia" from eastern South Africa is sister to all other Pettalidae, while "Purcellia" from western South Africa is sister to the Chilean "Chileogovea". Western South Africa and southern South America were last connected during the Late Jurassic, about 150 mya. Likewise, the monotypic "Neopurcellia" from New Zealand appears as the sister group to all Pettalidae except for "Parapurcellia", instead of being monophyletic with the other two New Zealand genera, which themselves appear as sister groups in Bayesian analysis, but not in direct optimization parsimony analyses.

pecies

* "Aoraki" Boyer & Giribet, 2007 (New Zealand):* "Aoraki calcarobtusa" (Forster, 1952) — Wellington, North Island::* "Aoraki calcarobtusa westlandica" (Forster, 1952) — Buller, South Island:* "Aoraki crypta" (Forster, 1948) — Coromandel & Bay of Plenty, North Island:* "Aoraki denticulata" (Forster, 1948) — Nelson, Marlborough, and Buller, South Island::* "Aoraki denticulata major" (Forster, 1952) — Arthur's Pass, South Island:* "Aoraki granulosa" (Forster, 1952) — Waikato, Coromandel, and Bay of Plenty, North Island:* "Aoraki healyi" (Forster, 1948) — Marlborough and Marlborough Sounds, South Island:* "Aoraki inerma" (Forster, 1948) — Waikato, Tongariro, and Bay of Plenty, North Island::* "Aoraki inerma stephenensis" (Forster, 1952) — Stephen's Island, Marlborough, South Island:* "Aoraki longitarsa" (Forster, 1952) — Mount Cook, Canterbury, South Island:* "Aoraki tumidata" (Forster, 1948) — Cuvier Island, Coromandel, North Island

* "Austropurcellia" Shear, 1980 (Queensland, Australia):* "Austropurcellia arcticosa" (Cantrell, 1980):* "Austropurcellia capricornia" (Todd Davies, 1977):* "Austropurcellia daviesae" (Juberthie, 1989):* "Austropurcellia forsteri" (Juberthie, 2000):* "Austropurcellia scoparia" Juberthie, 1988:* "Austropurcellia woodwardi" (Forster, 1955)

* "Chileogovea" Roewer, 1961 (Chile):* "Chileogovea jocasta" Shear, 1993:* "Chileogovea oedipus" Roewer, 1961

* "Karripurcellia" Giribet, 2003 (Western Australia):* "Karripurcellia harveyi" Giribet, 2003:* "Karripurcellia peckorum" Giribet, 2003:* "Karripurcellia sierwaldae" Giribet, 2003

* "Manangotria" Shear & Gruber, 1996 (Madagascar):* "Manangotria taolanaro" Shear & Gruber, 1996

* "Neopurcellia" Forster, 1948 (New Zealand: South Island):* "Neopurcellia salmoni" Forster, 1948

* "Parapurcellia" Rosas Costa, 1950 (eastern South Africa):* "Parapurcellia fissa" (Lawrence, 1939):* "Parapurcellia monticola" (Lawrence, 1939):* "Parapurcellia rumpiana" (Lawrence, 1933):* "Parapurcellia silvicola" (Lawrence, 1939)

* "Pettalus" Thorell, 1876 (Sri Lanka):* "Pettalus brevicauda" Pocock, 1897:* "Pettalus cimiciformis" (O. P-Cambridge, 1875):* "Pettalus lampetides" Sharma & Giribet, 2006

* "Purcellia" Hansen & Sørensen, 1904 (western South Africa):* "Purcellia illustrans" Hansen & Sørensen, 1904:* "Purcellia peregrinator" Lawrence, 1963:* "Purcellia transvaalica" Lawrence, 1963

* "Rakaia" Hirst, 1925 (New Zealand):* "Rakaia antipodiana" Hirst, 1925 — Rakaia Gorge, Canterbury, South Island:* "Rakaia dorothea" (Phillipps & Grimmett, 1932) — Wellington and Wairarapa, North Island:* "Rakaia florensis" (Forster, 1948) — Nelson, South Island:* "Rakaia isolata" Forster, 1952 — North Canterbury, South Island:* "Rakaia lindsayi" Forster, 1952 — Stewart Island:* "Rakaia macra" Boyer & Giribet, 2003 — Waipori, Otago, South Island:* "Rakaia magna" Forster, 1948 — Wellington, North Island::* "Rakaia magna australis" Forster, 1952 — Lewis Pass, South Island:* "Rakaia media" Forster, 1948 — Tongariro and Bay of Plenty, North Island::* "Rakaia media insula" Forster, 1952 — Little Barrier Island, Auckland, North Island:* "Rakaia minutissima" (Forster, 1948) — Waikato, South Island:* "Rakaia pauli" Forster, 1952 — Mid-Canterbury, South Island:* "Rakaia solitaria" Forster, 1948 — Opouawa Gully, West Wairarapa, North Island:* "Rakaia sorenseni" Forster, 1952 — Southland and Dunedin, South Island::* "Rakaia sorenseni digitata" Forster, 1952 — Chaslands, Otago, South Island:* "Rakaia stewartiensis" Forster, 1948 — Stewart Island:* "Rakaia uniloca" Forster, 1952 — Marlborough Sounds, South Island

* "Speleosiro" Lawrence, 1931 (South Africa):* "Speleosiro argasiformis" Lawrence, 1931

The monotypic "Ankaratra franzi" Shear & Gruber, 1996 from Madagascar is sometimes placed in this family, but is as of 2007 considered "incertae sedis" within the Cyphophthalmi.Cyphophthalmi checklist]

ee also

* Ecology of Sri Lanka

Footnotes

References

* Joel Hallan's Biology Catalog: [http://insects.tamu.edu/research/collection/hallan/Acari/Family/Pettalidae.txt Pettalidae]
* [http://collections.oeb.harvard.edu/Invertebrate/Cyphophthalmi/species.cfm Checklist of the Cyphophthalmi species of the World] (with pictures)
* (1971): Les opilions cyphophthalmes cavernicoles. Notes sur "Speleosiro argasiformis" Lawrence. "Bull. Mus. Natl Hist. Nat." 42: 864–871.
* (eds.) (2007): Harvestmen - The Biology of Opiliones. "Harvard University Press" ISBN 0-674-02343-9
* (2007): A new model Gondwanan taxon: systematics and biogeography of the harvestman family Pettalidae (Arachnida, Opiliones, Cyphophthalmi), with a taxonomic revision of genera from Australia and New Zealand. "Cladistics" 23(4): 337-361. doi|10.1111/j.1096-0031.2007.00149.x