Molecules and morphology reveal a new aberrant harvestman genus of Ortholasmatinae (Opiliones, Dypsnoi, Nemastomatidae) from Mexico

Abstract

Ortholasmatinae is one of the most striking groups of Opiliones, because its members exhibit a peculiar dorsal ornamentation pattern of cells, formed by fusion of anvil-shaped tubercles. During the systematic revision of several specimens of ortholasmatines, we found specimens with shared morphological characters with two genera Trilasma Goodnight & Goodnight, 1942 and Dendrolasma Banks, 1894. In order to investigate their phylogenetic relationships, we performed model-based phylogenetic analyses using the mitochondrial protein-encoding cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 (CO1) and the complete nuclear ribosomal small subunit 18S, including members of the five genera of this subfamily. The results support the creation of Cryptolasma Cruz-López, Cruz-Bonilla & Francke, gen. nov., and two new species: Cryptolasma aberrante Cruz-López, Cruz-Bonilla & Francke, sp. nov. (type species) and Cryptolasma citlaltepetl Cruz-López, Cruz-Bonilla & Francke, sp. nov., which are from Xalapa and Orizaba Volcano, Veracruz, respectively. Additionally, our results suggest Ruaxphilos petrukenvitchou Goodnight & Goodnight, 1945 is a nomina dubia. This study represents the first molecular hypothesis of Ortholasmatinae relationships, with Cryptolasma as the sister of the remaining ortholasmatine.www.zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:3730EE48-9802-4B06-9DDF-EC1AFE9A3B61

Key words:

• Bayesian inference
• Maximum likelihood
• new genus
• new species
• phylogenetics

Acknowledgements

We thank Berenit Mendoza and Andrea Jiménez (LaNaBio, UNAM) for their assistance on electron microscope and molecular lab, respectively. JACL is thankful to Posgrado en Ciencias Biológicas, UNAM and CONACYT for partial financial support to this study. Also this research was partially funded by project #271108 (Red Temática Código de Barras de la Vida) granted to O. Francke. We specially thank Fernando Álvarez-Padilla who donated all specimens of Cryptolasma citlaltepetl to the CNAN; these specimens were collected with funding from UNAM-DGAPA-PAPIIT project IN213612, under the permit SGPA/DGVS/02403/12 granted by SEMARNAT. Specimens of Cryptolasma aberrante were collected under Scientific Collector Permit FAUT-175 granted by SEMARNAT to O. Francke. We thank Fernando Baz from Universidad Veracruzana (UV) and authorities of Parque Natura, Xalapa, Veracruz for all assistance provided during the collecting of Opiliones for the undergraduate thesis of ACB. We thank C. Santibáñez and K. McWest for their kind language revision, and two anonymous reviewers for their suggestions. Finally, JACL thanks William Shear for his advice and recommendation to create this new genus some years ago.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Supplemental data

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here https://doi.org/10.1080/14772000.2018.1476416.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (CONACYT), [grant number 249637]