The Stygnidae are a 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 biogeogra ...

harvestmen The Opiliones (formerly Phalangida) are an Order (biology), order of arachnids, Common name, colloquially known as harvestmen, harvesters, harvest spiders, or daddy longlegs (see below). , over 6,650 species of harvestmen have been discovered w ...

within the suborder

Laniatores Laniatores is the largest suborder of the arachnid order Opiliones with over 4,200 described species worldwide. The majority of the species are highly dependent on humid environments and usually correlated with tropical and temperate forest habit ...

Name

The name of the type genus is derived from

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...

''stygnos'' "diabolic being". (2007): Stygnidae Simon, 1879. In: Pinto-da-Rocha ''et al.'' 2007: 226ff

Description

Body length ranges from about one to six millimeters. The color ranges from light brown to reddish. Some Heterostygninae have white patches, stripes or spots on the dorsal

scutum The ''scutum'' (; :''scuta'') was a type of shield used among Italic peoples in antiquity, most notably by the army of ancient Rome starting about the fourth century BC. The Romans adopted it when they switched from the military formation of ...

Distribution

The Heterostygninae are found in the

Lesser Antilles The Lesser Antilles is a group of islands in the Caribbean Sea, forming part of the West Indies in Caribbean, Caribbean region of the Americas. They are distinguished from the larger islands of the Greater Antilles to the west. They form an arc w ...

, Nomoclastinae are

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...

, and the Stygninae live from north of the

Tropic of Capricorn The Tropic of Capricorn (or the Southern Tropic) is the circle of latitude that contains the subsolar point at the December (or southern) solstice. It is thus the southernmost latitude where the Sun can be seen directly overhead. It also reach ...

(central South America). Most species live in the

Amazonian rainforest The Amazon rainforest, also called the Amazon jungle or Amazonia, is a Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests, moist broadleaf tropical rainforest in the Amazon biome that covers most of the Amazon basin of South America. This basin ...

. However, half the species have only been collected once, so distribution of species is poorly known.

Relationships

The Stygnidae are sister to

Cosmetidae Cosmetidae is a family of harvestmen in the suborder Laniatores. With over 700 species, it is one of the largest families in Opiliones. They are endemic of the New World with a Nearctic-Neotropical distribution where a large fraction of the dive ...

and

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 ...

, and belong to the same group inside Gonyleptoidea as these and Cranaidae and Manaosbiidae. The Stygnidae are

monophyletic In biological cladistics for the classification of organisms, monophyly is the condition of a taxonomic grouping being a clade – that is, a grouping of organisms which meets these criteria: # the grouping contains its own most recent co ...

Genera

See the List of Stygnidae species for a list of currently described species. Heterostygninae Roewer, 1913 :* '' Eutimesius'' Roewer, 1913 :* '' Imeri'' Pinto-da-Rocha & Tourinho, 2012 :* '' Innoxius'' Pinto-da-Rocha, 1997 :* '' Minax'' Pinto-da-Rocha, 1997 :* '' Stenostygnellus'' Roewer, 1913 :* '' Stygnidius'' Simon, 1879 :* '' Stygnoplus'' Simon, 1879 :* '' Timesius'' Simon, 1879 :* '' Yapacana'' Pinto-da-Rocha, 1997 Stygninae Simon, 1879 :* '' Actinostygnoides'' Goodnight & Goodnight, 1942 :* '' Auranus'' Mello-Leitão, 1941 :* '' Fortia'' Villarreal et al., 2022 :* '' Iguarassua'' Roewer, 1943 :* '' Jabbastygnus'' Kury & Villarreal, 2015 :* '' Kaapora'' Pinto-da-Rocha, 1997 :* '' Metaphareus'' Roewer, 1912 :* '' Niceforoiellus'' Mello-Leitão, 1941 :* '' Obidosus'' Roewer, 1931 :* '' Ortonia'' Wood, 1869 :* '' Paraphareus'' Goodnight & Goodnight, 1943 :* '' Phareus'' Simon, 1879 :* '' Pickeliana'' Mello-Leitão, 1932 :* '' Planophareus'' Goodnight & Goodnight, 1943 :* '' Protimesius'' Roewer, 1913 :* '' Ricstygnus'' Kury, 2009 :* '' Sickesia'' Soares, 1979 :* '' Stenophareus'' Goodnight & Goodnight, 1943 :* '' Stenostygnoides'' Roewer, 1913 :* '' Stygnus'' Perty, 1833 :* '' Verrucastygnus'' Pinto-da-Rocha, 1997 ''

Incertae sedis or is a term used for a taxonomy (biology), taxonomic group where its broader relationships are unknown or undefined. Alternatively, such groups are frequently referred to as "enigmatic taxa". In the system of open nomenclature, uncertainty ...

'': :* '' Gaibulus'' Roewer, 1943 --- Else see Nomoclastinae Roewer, 1943 including '' Nomoclastes'' Sørensen, 1932 => Nomoclastidae

Footnotes

References

* Joel Hallan's Biology Catalog
Stygnopsidae
* (eds.) (2007): Harvestmen - The Biology of Opiliones. ''Harvard University Press'' {{Taxonbar, from=Q584072 Harvestmen Harvestman families