Trogulidae


Trogulidae is a family of harvestmen with 5 genera and 57 extant species and one fossil species.
Members of this species have short legs and live in soil. They have dirt attached to their bodies, to escape predators. Their body length ranges from 2 to 22 mm. The body is in most genera somewhat flattened and leathery. Adults have a small hood, which hides their short chelicerae and pedipalps.

Distribution

Members of this family occur in western and southern Europe, up to western North Africa and the Levant, the Caucasus and northern Iran. Trogulus tricarinatus, a predator of terrestrial snails, has been introduced to eastern North America.

Name

The derivation of the name of the type genus, Trogulus, is not fully understood. The describer Latreille wrote that he named it because it looks like a monkshood. Perrier however derived the name from Ancient Greek trogein "gnawing", because of the rough, "gnawed-upon" appearance.

SpeciesChemeris, A.N. (2013) http://www.museunacional.ufrj.br/mndi/Aracnologia/pdfliteratura/Chemeris%202013%20Siberian%20Museum.pdf Two new harvestman species (Arachnida: Opiliones) from the collection of Siberian [Zoological Museum. ''Arthropoda Selecta'']