Description of a new species of Leptostygnus Mello–Leitão, 1940 and notes on the male genitalia in the subfamily Leiosteninae (Opiliones: Agoristenidae)

ABSTRACT

A new species of Leptostygnus Mello–Leitão, 1940, Leptostygnus yarigui sp. nov. from Colombia (Santander department) is described and illustrated. Photographs of Leptostygnus leptochirus Mello-Leitão, 1940 (type species of the genus) and L. marchantiarum (González-Sponga, 1987), a map with geographical distribution and a key to the species of the genus are given. The first SEM images of a penis of a Leiosteninae member are shown with comments about the genital morphology in the subfamily.

urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:3E5D9155-6BFF-4B63-A2C4-15D8172FCDD1

KEYWORDS:

• Andes
• Colombia
• harvestmen
• Laniatores

Acknowledgments

We are very grateful to Jairo Moreno and Solimary García (Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil – USP) who kindly sent to us some exemplars of the new species here described; to Brittany Damron (USP) for the english revision. The facilities with loan of material from Eduardo Flórez (ICN), the hospitality of Antonio de Ascenção and Nestor Sánchez (Universidad de los Andes, Mérida, Venezuela) and the support of Quintín Arias (Universidad Central de Venezuela, Maracay, Venezuela) during the visit to Venezuelan collections (MIZA and MAGS), were fundamental for the development of the present work. The suggestions and recommendations of Marcos Hara (USP) and one anonymous referee substantially improved the present paper. The SEM micrographs were taken in the Microscopy Platform Rudolf Barth/Instituto Oswaldo Cruz-Fiocruz (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) with the kind assistance of Taíssa Ribeiro Adriano de Oliveira and Roger Magno Macedo Silva. Thanks to John Alexander Uribe for share with us his photograph of a living specimen (Figure 6). The OmniPaper Project (http://www.museunacional.ufrj.br/mndi/Aracnologia/pdfliteratura/pdfs%20opiliones.htm) created by Adriano Kury was very helpful providing access to some papers.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This study has been supported by a scholarship from the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES) to AFG.