New species of Austropurcellia, cryptic short-range endemic mite harvestmen (Arachnida, Opiliones, Cyphophthalmi) from Australia's Wet Tropics biodiversity hotspot

The genus Austropurcellia is a lineage of tiny leaf-litter arachnids that inhabit tropical rainforests throughout the eastern coast of Queensland, Australia. The majority of their diversity is found within the Wet Tropics rainforests of northeast Queensland, an area known for its exceptionally high...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:ZooKeys 2016-01, Vol.586 (586), p.37-93
Main Authors: Jay, Katya R, Popkin-Hall, Zachary R, Coblens, Michelle J, Oberski, Jill T, Sharma, Prashant P, Boyer, Sarah L
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Arachnida
Biodiversity
Biodiversity hot spots
Biogeography
Contraction
Dispersal
Endemic species
New species
Opiliones
Rainforests
Zoology
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The genus Austropurcellia is a lineage of tiny leaf-litter arachnids that inhabit tropical rainforests throughout the eastern coast of Queensland, Australia. The majority of their diversity is found within the Wet Tropics rainforests of northeast Queensland, an area known for its exceptionally high levels of biodiversity and endemism. Studying the biogeographic history of limited-dispersal invertebrates in the Wet Tropics can provide insight into the role of climatic changes such as rainforest contraction in shaping rainforest biodiversity patterns. Here we describe six new species of mite harvestmen from the Wet Tropics rainforests, identified using morphological data, and discuss the biogeography of Austropurcellia with distributions of all known species. With this taxonomic contribution, the majority of the known diversity of the genus has been documented.
ISSN:1313-2989
1313-2970
DOI:10.3897/zookeys.586.6774