Pirassunungoleptes H.E.M.Soares 1966
Creators: name: Pérez-González, Abel
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2011
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Arachnida
Opiliones
Zalmoxidae
Pirassunungoleptes

description: Pirassunungoleptes H.E.M.Soares, 1966
Pirassunungoleptes analis (Roewer, 1949) new combination, new familial assignment (Figs 1 a–e)
Phalangodinus analis Roewer, 1949: 14, pl. 2, figs 9 a–f [Phalangodidae: Phalangodinae]; Kury 2003: 27. [Grassatores incertae sedis] Types: SMF 9907447 (ex RII 7447/193), male holotype and two female paratypes (examined).
Type locality: Brazil: Pernambuco State, Goiana (“Goyanna” in Roewer 1949).
Remarks: Originally described as Phalangodidae: Phalangodinae by Roewer (1949) and later considered as Grassatores incertae sedis by Kury (2003).
Justification of the new familial assignment: The male genitalia (Figs 1 c–e) show clearly the ventral plate of the pars distalis divided into pergula and rutrum, which is a characteristic of Zalmoxidae and Fissiphalliidae (Tourinho & Pérez-González 2006; Pinto-da-Rocha 2007) and the stragulum is quite different from the enlarged fingerlike stragulum of Fissiphalliidae (Martens 1986, 1988; Pinto-da-Rocha 2004, 2007; Tourinho & Pérez-González 2006). The short rutrum and the wide and short stragulum with a deep median cleft (dividing the stragulum in two branches) diagnose the species as a member of Zamoxidae. Some features of the external morphology of this species are also typical of Zalmoxidae (Kury & Pérez-González 2007): the pyriform body, the well marked bulla, the sulcus II being slightly “V” shaped and the enlarged tibia IV armored with spines (Figs 1 a–b and also see figs 9 a–f in Roewer 1949).
Justification of the new combination: Phalangodinus surinamensis Roewer, 1912 (the type species of Phalangodinus Roewer, 1912) exhibits remarkabe morphological differences with Phalangodinus analis Roewer, 1949. These include a very wide and larger ocularium, enlarged chelicerae, parallel mesotergal sulci, and the anal operculum unarmed (Roewer 1949, personal observation). These differences point to both species belonging to different genera. I was not able to decide if Phalangodinus also belongs to Zalmoxidae because the male genitalia of P. surinamensis is still unknown. I therefore retained this taxon as Grassatores incertae sedis. A reliable allocation of P. analis into one of the present zalmoxid genera is not possible ahead of a taxonomical revision of this family whose taxonomy is affected by an enormous number of genera erected under a highly typological approach. Phalangodinus analis is therefore tentatively placed in the genus Pirassunungoleptes H.E.M. Soares, 1966 (type species: Pirassunungoleptes calcaratus H.E.M. Soares, 1966, from São Paulo State, Brazil), to which it shows the closest affiliation in terms of the following characters: minute size (less than 2 mm); pyriform habitus, ocularium small, near the frontal margin of the carapace (Fig. 1 a); anal operculum with a row of pointed aphophyses, and femur and tibia IV armed with a remarkable ventral acute apophyses (Fig. 1 b). This placement has to be verified within a more comprehensive revision of this and related genera.
description: Published as part of Pérez-González, Abel, 2011, New familial assignment for two harvestmen species of the infraorder Grassatores (Arachnida: Opiliones: Laniatores), pp. 24-28 in Zootaxa 2757 on pages 24-26, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.276746