Escadabiidae

Undescribed species of Baculigerus, from Kury & Pérez González (2007).
Belongs within: Laniatores.

The Escadabiidae is a small family of short-legged harvestmen that has so far only been recorded from coastal regions and inland caves of Brazil.

Characters (from Kury & Pérez González 2007): Dorsal scutum 2.5–3.5 mm long. Dorsal scutum campaniform, with sides straight, hourglass-shaped in a few species. Ocularium small, with a few granules and sometimes a median spine. Mesotergum divided into four areas by straight transverse grooves, without relevant armature, area I longer than others. Sternites smooth and unarmed or with huge lateral projections. Chelicerae weak and not sexually dimorphic; basichelicerite short with well-marked bulla. Pedipalps more or less as long as dorsal scutum, without special modifications; femur with two or three ventral setiferous tubercles, patella with one mesal setiferous tubercle; tibia and tarsus each with a row of a few ventromesal and ventroectal setiferous tubercles. All legs short and granulous; coxa IV of male coarsely granulate with dorsoapical apophysis made up of two subequal branches, lateral border parallel to main axis of body; femora I–II straight, IV curved subbasally, strongly incrassate in males of Escadabius; tibiae I–II with differentiated porose distal area that may develop into a deep notch and/or huge apophysis. Penis with pair of rigid conductors and reversible capsula interna; ventral plate not defined; pars distalis well separated from pars basalis by constriction (absent in Escadabius), with ventral lamina apicalis that may be armed with small lateral spines; pars distalis with ventral keel-shaped protuberance; pair of well-developed rigid conductors that do not sink deeply into glans socket (vestigial in Escadabius); stylus very large and apically surrounded by well-developed hornlike parastylar collar.

Escadabiidae
    |--Baculigerus Soares 1979 KPG07, K03
    |    `--*B. littoris Soares 1979 K03
    |--Jim Soares 1979 KPG07, K03
    |    `--*J. benignus Soares 1979 K03
    |--Recifesius Soares 1978 KPG07, K03
    |    `--*R. pernambucanus Soares 1978 K03
    |--Spaeleoleptes Soares 1966 KPG07, K03
    |    `--*S. spaeleus Soares 1966 K03
    `--Escadabius Roewer 1949 KPG07, K03
         |--*E. ventricalcaratus Roewer 1949 K03
         |--E. schubarti Roewer 1949 K03
         `--E. spinicoxa Roewer 1949 K03

*Type species of generic name indicated

REFERENCES

[K03] Kury, A. B. 2003. Annotated catalogue of the Laniatores of the New World (Arachnida, Opiliones). Revista Ibérica de Aracnología, volumen especial monográfico 1: 1-337.

[KPG07] Kury, A. B., & A. Pérez González. 2007. Escadabiidae Kury and Pérez in Kury, 2003. In Harvestmen: The Biology of Opiliones (R. Pinto-da-Rocha, G. Machado & G. Giribet, eds) pp. 191-194. Harvard University Press: Cambridge (Massachusetts).