A review of harvestmen (Arachnida: Opiliones) in Slovenia*

Abstract

The authors present a short historical faunistic, zoogeographical and ecological review of research on harvestmen (Opiliones) of the territory of presentday Slovenia, and discuss some actual ecological and nature conservational questions. Till recent, 64 species plus two subspecies of Opiliones inhabiting Slovenia are recorded, most of these are Alpine, European, Central- and Western European elements. Taxonomically, there are some open questions, especially in the genus Trogulus. A small number of further species can be expected in Slovenia, raising the potential final number to 69-71. Some harvestmen are locally and regionally endangered, especially by anthropogenous habitat and ecosystem changes.

A stable phylogenomic classification of Travunioidea (Arachnida, Opiliones, Laniatores) based on sequence capture of ultraconserved elements

“…Kury and Mendes (2007) focus entirely on nomenclatural issues, resolving them at the familial and generic level, and in doing so note that “the [traditional] family Travuniidae constitutes one of the worst problems of the laniatorid taxonomy of the 20 th century”. Several others have discussed the diverse array of problems plaguing travunioid taxonomy (Novak 2005, Novak and Gruber 2000, Karaman 2005). These issues include, but are not limited to, description of two species in two different genera based on the same material, autosynonymy of a genus name, proposal of unavailable family and genus names, genus description without designation of type species after 1930, species descriptions based on juveniles, mistranslation of foreign languages, disregard for correct taxonomic changes, mismatched type localities, type localities accidentally and intentionally incorrectly named, inability to find further specimens from type localities, and destruction of type localities.…”

“…P. gabria Roewer, 1935 is recorded from Trieste, Italy; P. postumicola (Roewer, 1935) is recorded from eastern Italy and western Slovenia; and P. tenuis Roewer, 1935 is recorded from northern Slovenia. Records from Trieste, Italy and Slovenia are conclusively shown to be in error, and P. postumicola and P. tenuis are morphologically similar to P. clavigera (Novak and Gruber 2000). As such, it is unclear how many actual species are included.…”

“…It is unclear how many species of Travunia actually exist. Novak (2004) questioned the validity of Travunia , Dinaria , and Abasola at the generic level, and Abasola was later synonymized with Travunia (Kury and Mendes 2007). Novak (2004, 2005) argues that Travunia may be oversplit and includes only 2–3 species of questionable status.…”

“…Novak (2004) questioned the validity of Travunia , Dinaria , and Abasola at the generic level, and Abasola was later synonymized with Travunia (Kury and Mendes 2007). Novak (2004, 2005) argues that Travunia may be oversplit and includes only 2–3 species of questionable status. The status of Travunia and Dinaria as distinct genera has been questioned based on similarity in male genitalic morphology (Novak 2004); together these might represent a single lineage.…”

“…Novak (2004, 2005) argues that Travunia may be oversplit and includes only 2–3 species of questionable status. The status of Travunia and Dinaria as distinct genera has been questioned based on similarity in male genitalic morphology (Novak 2004); together these might represent a single lineage.…”