Pettalidae

The Pettalidae are a family of harvestmen with 75 described species in 10 genera. Several undescribed species are known or assumed in some genera.

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

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 likely 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.

Species

The family Pettalidae contains the following genera and species:

• Aoraki Boyer & Giribet, 2007 (New Zealand)

Aoraki calcarobtusa (Forster, 1952) Aoraki crypta (Forster, 1948) Aoraki denticulata (Forster, 1948) Aoraki denticulata denticulata (Forster, 1948) Aoraki denticulata major (Forster, 1952) Aoraki granulosa (Forster, 1952) Aoraki healyi (Forster, 1948) Aoraki inerma (Forster, 1948) Aoraki longitarsa (Forster, 1952) Aoraki stephenesis (Forster, 1952) Aoraki tumidata (Forster, 1948) Aoraki westlandica (Forster, 1952)

• Archaeopurcellia Giribet, Shaw, Lord & Derkarabetian, 2022

Archaeopurcellia eureka Giribet, Shaw, Lord & Derkarabetian, 2022

• Austropurcellia Juberthie, 1988

Austropurcellia absens Boyer & Popkin-Hall, 2015 Austropurcellia acuta Popkin-Hall & Boyer, 2014 Austropurcellia alata Boyer & Reuter, 2012 Austropurcellia arcticosa (Cantrell, 1980) Austropurcellia barbata Popkin-Hall & Boyer, 2014 Austropurcellia cadens Baker & Boyer, 2015 Austropurcellia capricornia (Davies, 1977) Austropurcellia clousi Boyer, Baker & Popkin-Hall, 2015 Austropurcellia culminis Boyer & Reuter, 2012 Austropurcellia daviesae (Juberthie, 1989) Austropurcellia despectata Boyer & Reuter, 2012 Austropurcellia finniganensis Popkin-Hall, Jay & Boyer, 2016 Austropurcellia forsteri (Juberthie, 2000) Austropurcellia fragosa Popkin-Hall, Jay & Boyer, 2016 Austropurcellia giribeti Boyer & Quay, 2015 Austropurcellia megatanka Jay, Coblens & Boyer, 2016 Austropurcellia monteithi Jay, Popkin-Hall, Coblens & Boyer, 2016 Austropurcellia nuda Popkin-Hall, Jay & Boyer, 2016 Austropurcellia riedeli Jay, Coblens & Boyer, 2016 Austropurcellia scoparia Juberthie, 1988 Austropurcellia sharmai Boyer & Quay, 2015 Austropurcellia superbensis Popkin-Hall & Boyer, 2014 Austropurcellia tholei Baker & Boyer, 2015 Austropurcellia vicina Boyer & Reuter, 2012 Austropurcellia woodwardi (Forster, 1955)

• Chileogovea Roewer, 1961 (Chile)

Chileogovea jocasta Shear, 1993 Chileogovea oedipus Roewer, 1961

• Karripurcellia Giribet, 2003 (Australia: Western Australia)

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 amatola de Bivort & Giribet, 2010 Parapurcellia convexa de Bivort & Giribet, 2010 Parapurcellia fissa Lawrence, 1939 Parapurcellia minuta de Bivort & Giribet, 2010 Parapurcellia monticola Lawrence, 1939 Parapurcellia natalia de Bivort & Giribet, 2010 Parapurcellia peregrinator Lawrence, 1963 Parapurcellia rumpiana Lawrence, 1933 Parapurcellia silvicola Lawrence, 1939 Parapurcellia staregai de Bivort & Giribet, 2010 Parapurcellia transvaalica (Lawrence, 1963)

• Pettalus Thorell, 1876 (Sri Lanka)

Pettalus brevicauda Pocock, 1897 Pettalus cimiciformis O. P-Cambridge, 1875 Pettalus lampetides Sharma & Giribet, 2006 Pettalus thwaitesi Sharma, Karunarathna & Giribet, 2009

• Purcellia Hansen & Sørensen, 1904 (western South Africa)

Purcellia argasiformis Lawrence, 1931 Purcellia griswoldi de Bivort & Giribet, 2010 Purcellia illustrans Hansen & Sørensen, 1904 Purcellia lawrencei de Bivort & Giribet, 2010 Purcellia leleupi Starega, 2008

• Rakaia Hirst, 1926 (New Zealand)

Rakaia antipodiana Hirst, 1926 Rakaia australis Forster, 1952 Rakaia collaris Roewer, 1942 Rakaia digitata Forster, 1952 Rakaia dorothea Phillipps & Grimmett, 1932 Rakaia florensis Forster, 1948 Rakaia insula Forster, 1952 Rakaia isolata Forster, 1952 Rakaia lindsayi Forster, 1952 Rakaia macra Boyer & Giribet, 2003 Rakaia magna Forster, 1948 Rakaia media Forster, 1948 Rakaia minutissima Forster, 1948 Rakaia pauli Forster, 1952 Rakaia solitaria Forster, 1948 Rakaia sorenseni Forster, 1952 Rakaia stewartiensis Forster, 1948 Rakaia uniloca Forster, 1952

See also

• Environment of Sri Lanka

Footnotes

• Joel Hallan's Biology Catalog:
• (with pictures)
• Juberthie, C. (1971): Les opilions cyphophthalmes cavernicoles. Notes sur Speleosiro argasiformis Lawrence. Bull. Mus. Natl Hist. Nat. 42: 864–871.
• Pinto-da-Rocha, R., Machado, G. & Giribet, G. (eds.) (2007): Harvestmen - The Biology of Opiliones. Harvard University Press ISBN 0-674-02343-9
• Boyer, S.L. & Giribet, G. (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: