Refine
Document Type
- Part of Periodical (2)
- Article (1)
Language
- English (3)
Has Fulltext
- yes (3)
Is part of the Bibliography
- no (3)
Keywords
- Gonyleptoidea (2)
- Neotropics (2)
- Andes (1)
- Arachnida (1)
- Colombia (1)
- Ecuador (1)
- Grassatores (1)
- Laniatores (1)
- Metalibitia (1)
- Nearctic (1)
The genus Eulibitia was described by Roewer including three species from Colombia and Ecuador: Eulibitia maculata Roewer, 1912, E. annulipes Roewer, 1912 and E. sexpunctata Roewer, 1914. Herein, the genus is revisited and only the type species, Eulibitia maculata Roewer, 1912 is maintained from the previous configuration. Eulibitia sexpunctata is transferred to Ambatoiella Mello- Leitão, 1943 and E. annulipes is considered as Cosmetinae incertae sedis. Acromares lateralis Goodnight & Goodnight, 1943 and Paramessa castanea (Sørensen, 1932) are here considered junior subjective synonyms of Messatana scalaris (Sørensen, 1932) and Eulibitia maculata, respectively. Brachylibitia Mello-Leitão, 1941, currently a junior synonym of Platymessa, is regarded as a synonym of Eulibitia. Platymessa Mello-Leitão, 1941, with two species, and the monotypic genera Messatana Strand, 1942 and Paramessa Mello-Leitão, 1933, are synonymized with Eulibitia Roewer, 1912, yielding the following new combinations: Eulibitia ectroxantha (for Brachylibitia ectroxantha Mello-Leitão, 1941), E. h-inscriptum (for Platymessa h-inscripta Mello-Leitão, 1941) and E. scalaris (for Libitia (Messa) scalaris Sørensen, 1932). Eulibitia is re-diagnosed and five new species are described: E. castor sp. nov., E. pollux sp. nov., E. clytemnestra sp. nov., E. leda sp. nov. and E. helena sp. nov. A key to the nine Eulibitia species is presented; the morphology of Eulibitia is compared with that of Libitia, Libitiella and Ambatoiella.
The old genus Libitia Simon, 1879 of small Andean harvestmen is revisited. The monotypic genus Libitiella Roewer, 1947 is herein considered a junior subjective synonym of Libitia. Accordingly, Libitiella bipunctata (Sørensen, 1932) is restored to the combination Libitia bipunctata. The species Libitia cordata and Libitia bipunctata comb. nov. are redescribed and the new species Libitia gandalf sp. nov. and Libitia iguaque sp. nov. are herein described from Cordillera Oriental of Colombian Andes (Chingaza Natural Park and Iguaque Natural Park, respectively). The species Gonyleptes multimaculatus Wood 1869, currently under the synonymy of L. cordata, is revalidated and transferred to Paecilaemella Roewer, 1925 forming Paecilaemella multimaculata comb. nov., and the species Cynorta itacoaiensis H. Soares, 1970 is herein considered a junior subjective synonym of it. In addition, the second current species of the genus, Libitia fusca (Simon, 1879), is transferred to Metalibitia. Libitia is diagnosed based in genital and external morphology, an identification key of the four species and distribution maps are offered.
The American species of Cosmetidae, in spite of being clearly distinguished in the older literature, were mixed-up by Roewer. This, aggravated by groundless synonymies done by Goodnight & Goodnight, prevented all subsequent authors from properly recognizing and adequately naming those species. Herein, we define and characterize the three most widespread species of Cosmetidae in the USA, explaining the misleading synonymies and misidentifications in the taxonomic literature. A recent phylogenetic analysis revalidated Libitioides Roewer, 1912 from the synonymy of Vonones Simon, 1879 to include three American species: Gonyleptes ornatum Say, 1821 (from southeastern USA), Cynorta sayi Simon, 1879 (from central-southern USA) and Cosmetus albolineatus Sørensen, 1884 (from eastern USA). Expanding on that, we herein aggregate another two species to Libitioides: Vonones modestus Banks, 1909 (from Cuba, herein revalidated from the synonymy of Libitioides ornata Roewer, 1912) and Libitioides scabrissima Roewer, 1912 (from Mexico, restored from the current combination with Vonones). The following subjective synonymies are proposed: (1) Platycynorta Mello-Leitão, 1933 and Denticynorta Roewer, 1947 = Libitioides; (2) Metacynorta denticus Walker, 1928 = Cosmetus albolineatus; (3) Platycynorta secunda Roewer, 1947 = Vonones modestus; (4) Libitioides ornata Roewer, 1912 and Cynorta (Cynorta) depressa Sørensen, 1932 = Cynorta sayi. Outside Libitioides, Cynorta bimaculata Banks, 1893, currently combined under Calicynorta Goodnight & Goodnight, 1943, and originally reported from California (due to a misinterpretation of label) has its type locality corrected as to be in Costa Rica instead and is transferred to Holovonones Roewer, 1912. Accordingly, Calicynorta is herein considered a junior subjective synonym of Holovonones Roewer, 1912. Platycynorta clavifemur Roewer, 1957 from Peru is newly combined under the genus Ambatoiella Mello-Leitão, 1943, otherwise known from Ecuador. The present analysis of the distributional data suggests that the occurrence of Cosmetidae is determined not directly by temperature, but by the absence of a dry season and the presence of a hot summer.