Pettalidae

Life-forms

Superregnum: Eukaryota
Cladus: Unikonta
Cladus: Opisthokonta
Cladus: Holozoa
Regnum: Animalia
Subregnum: Eumetazoa
Cladus: Bilateria
Cladus: Nephrozoa
Cladus: Protostomia
Cladus: Ecdysozoa
Cladus: Panarthropoda
Phylum: Arthropoda
Subphylum: Chelicerata
Classis: Arachnida
Ordo: Opiliones
Subordo: Cyphophthalmi

Familia: Pettalidae
Genera (11): Aoraki – Austropurcellia – Chileogovea – Karripurcellia – Manangotria – Neopurcellia – Parapurcellia – Pettalus – Purcellia – Rakaia – Speleosiro
Neopurcellia - Parapurcellia - Pettalus - Purcellia

Name

Pettalidae Shear, 1980

Primary references

Shear, W.A. 1980: A review of the Cyphophthalmi of the United States and Mexico, with a proposed reclassification of the suborder (Arachnida, Opiliones). American Museum novitates, (2705 ) handle

References

Bivort, B.L., de; Clouse, R.M.; Giribet, G. 2010: A morphometrics-based phylogeny of the temperate Gondwanan mite harvestmen (Opiliones, Cyphophthalmi, Pettalidae). Journal of zoological systematics and evolutionary research, 48 (4): 294–309. DOI: 10.1111/j.1439-0469.2009.00562.x
Bivort, B.L., de; Giribet, G. 2010: A systematic revision of the South African Pettalidae (Arachnida: Opiliones: Cyphophthalmi) based on a combined analysis of discrete and continuous morphological characters with the description of seven new species. Invertebrate systematics, 24 (4): 371–406. DOI: 10.1071/IS10015
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: 337–361. DOI: 10.1111/j.1096-0031.2007.00149.x
Boyer, S.L.; Giribet, G. 2009: Welcome back New Zealand: regional biogeography and Gondwanan origin of three endemic genera of mite harvestmen (Arachnida, Opiliones, Cyphophthalmi). Journal of biogeography, 36: 1084–1099. DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2699.2009.02092.x
Forster, R.R. 1948: The sub-order Cyphophthalmi Simon in New Zealand. Dominion Museum records in entomology, 1: 79–119.
Giribet, G. 2003: Karripurcellia, a new pettalid genus (Arachnida: Opiliones: Cyphophthalmi) from Western Australia, with a cladistic analysis of the family Pettalidae. Invertebrate systematics, 17: 387–406. DOI: 10.1071/IS02014
Giribet, G.; Boyer, S.L. 2010: ‘Moa’s Ark’ or ‘Goodbye Gondwana’: is the origin of New Zealand’s terrestrial invertebrate fauna ancient, recent, or both? Invertebrate systematics, 24: 1–8. DOI: 10.1071/IS10009
Schwentner, M. & Giribet, G. 2018. Phylogeography, species delimitation and population structure of a Western Australian short-range endemic mite harvestman (Arachnida: Opiliones: Pettalidae: Karripurcellia). Evolutionary Systematics 2: 81–87. DOI: 10.3897/evolsyst.2.25274 Reference page.
Šťáhlavský, F. et al. (Early View, 2012): First cytogenetic study of a member of the harvestman family Pettalidae (Opiliones: Cyphophthalmi). Australian journal of entomology, DOI: 10.1111/j.1440-6055.2012.00870.x

The Pettalidae are a family of harvestmen with 75 described species in 10 genera.[1] Several undescribed species are known or assumed in some genera.[2]
Name

Pettalus is a name from Greek mythology that appears in Ovid's Metamorphoses.[2]
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.[1]
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.[2]
Relationships

Parapurcellia (eastern South Africa)

Neopurcellia (New Zealand)

Rakaia (New Zealand)

Aoraki (New Zealand)

Purcellia (western South Africa)

Chileogovea (Chile)

	Karripurcellia (Western Australia)

	Pettalus (Sri Lanka)

Austropurcellia (Queensland)

Phylogeny of most Pettalidae(after Boyer & Giribet 2007)

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.[1] Parsimony analysis suggests it could be a sister group to the remaining Cyphophthalmi, though this could also be the case for the Stylocellidae,[1] or it could be related to the Sironidae, or specifically to the sironid genus Suzukielus.[2] 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.[1]

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.[1]
Species

The family Pettalidae contains the following genera and species:[3][4]

Aoraki Boyer & Giribet, 2007 (New Zealand)

Aoraki calcarobtusa Forster, 1952

Aoraki calcarobtusa calcarobtusa Forster, 1952
Aoraki calcarobtusa westlandica 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 inerma inerma Forster, 1948
Aoraki inerma stephenensis Forster, 1952

Aoraki longitarsa Forster, 1952
Aoraki tumidata Forster, 1948

Austropurcellia Shear, 1980 (Australia: Queensland)

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 Todd 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 harveyi Giribet, 2003
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 minutade 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

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
Purcellia transvaalica Lawrence, 1963

Rakaia Hirst, 1925 (New Zealand)

Rakaia antipodiana Hirst, 1925
Rakaia dorothea Phillipps & Grimmett, 1932
Rakaia florensis Forster, 1948
Rakaia isolata Forster, 1952
Rakaia lindsayi Forster, 1952
Rakaia macra Boyer & Giribet, 2003
Rakaia magna Forster, 1948

Rakaia magna australis Forster, 1952
Rakaia magna magna Forster, 1948

Rakaia media Forster, 1948

Rakaia media insula Forster, 1952
Rakaia media media Forster, 1948

Rakaia minutissima Forster, 1948
Rakaia pauli Forster, 1952
Rakaia solitaria Forster, 1948
Rakaia sorenseni Forster, 1952

Rakaia sorenseni digitata Forster, 1952
Rakaia sorenseni sorenseni Forster, 1952

Rakaia stewartiensis Forster, 1948
Rakaia uniloca Forster, 1952