Description of new Heteropachylinae Kury, 1994 species and discussion about their filogenetic position (Opiliones: Laniatores: Gonyleptidae)

Abstract

The order Opiliones is the third most numerous class within Arachnida, posessing more than 6500 described species and it is highly endemic from the Atlantic rainforest. More specifically, in the south region of Bahia state, in the Atlantic rainsforest, there are, at least, 13 endemic species of this order (Souza, 2013). Within the family Gonyleptidae (Laniatores), there is a subfamily named Heteropachylinae, which has 11 described species in three genera (one of them is monotipic). This clade has been studied recently by Mendes (2011), in which the subfamily, genera and species monophyly are supported by a huge number of morphological characters. However, analysing individuals of the subfamily collected in the south region of Bahia, it is known that there are, at least, two more species to be described: one from the monotipic generum Magnispina, and other from Heteropachylus. Therefore, this project intends to describe these Heteropachylinae new species and analyse their phylogenetic position inside the group, based mostly in the characters suggested by Mendes (2011).