A classification of the penial microsetae of Gonyleptoidea (Opiliones: Laniatores).
The macrosetae of the ventral plate of Laniatores penis have been occasionally described and used for systematic purposes in the literature, to the point of having a whole system created for them in the recent study Of Kury & Villarreal (2015), in a paper where a phylogenetic analysis of the subfamily Gonyleptoidea was performed. Contrastingly, the microsetae of ventral plate of Gonyleptoidea are left undescribed in descriptive works, where the penis is often illustrated without a ventral view of the ventral plate. In some works with SEM images microsetae do appear, although they remain undescribed and/or unacknowledged (e.g., Townsend et al., 2010 figs 8-10; Coronato-Ribeiro & Pinto-da-Rocha 2015, where microsetae are visible in photos, but only barely mentioned). In the case of line drawings, exceptionally a few microsetae are shown mainly in the lateral view of the penis ventral plate (Acosta 2001, figs 17-21; Weber 1988, fig 6b). Exceptions to this treatment are Kury (2012: 41, figs 14-15) in which besides microsetae are illustrated their distribution pattern is described and Kury (2014), where even a subgroup of Gonyleptoidea was created and named-Microsetata-for species possessing a mat of microsetae on the ventral surface of ventral plate. Furthermore, among the characters used for the analysis in Kury & Villarreal (2015), the authors listed one containing five types of microsetae, which were not explained. Here, these types and their topology are described to make up for that omission.
Departamento de Invertebrados, Museu Nacional/UFRJ, Quinta da Boa Vista, São Cristóvão, 20.940-040, Rio de Janeiro - RJ - BRAZIL.; Email: adrianok@gmail.com.
Adriano B
AB
Kury
D000818:Animals; D001097:Arachnida / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000145:classification*; D008297:Male; D010413:Penis / Q000033:anatomy & histology