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Taxonomic revision of the Andean genus Eulibitia Roewer, 1912 (Arachnida, Opiliones, Cosmetidae), with the description of five new species

Miguel MEDRANO & Adriano B. KURY

en European Journal of Taxonomy 2017 (357) - Pages 1-55 (EJT-357)

Published on 11 October 2017

The genus Eulibitia was described by Roewer including three species from Colombia and Ecuador: Eulibitia maculata Roewer, 1912, E. annulipes Roewer, 1912 and E. sexpunctata Roewer, 1914. Herein, the genus is revisited and only the type species, Eulibitia maculata Roewer, 1912 is maintained from the previous configuration. Eulibitia sexpunctata is transferred to Ambatoiella Mello- Leitão, 1943 and E. annulipes is considered as Cosmetinae incertae sedis. Acromares lateralis Goodnight & Goodnight, 1943 and Paramessa castanea (Sørensen, 1932) are here considered junior subjective synonyms of Messatana scalaris (Sørensen, 1932) and Eulibitia maculata, respectively. Brachylibitia Mello-Leitão, 1941, currently a junior synonym of Platymessa, is regarded as a synonym of Eulibitia. Platymessa Mello-Leitão, 1941, with two species, and the monotypic genera Messatana Strand, 1942 and Paramessa Mello-Leitão, 1933, are synonymized with Eulibitia Roewer, 1912, yielding the following new combinations: Eulibitia ectroxantha (for Brachylibitia ectroxantha Mello-Leitão, 1941), E. h-inscriptum (for Platymessa h-inscripta Mello-Leitão, 1941) and E. scalaris (for Libitia (Messa) scalaris Sørensen, 1932). Eulibitia is re-diagnosed and five new species are described: E. castor sp. nov., E. pollux sp. nov., E. clytemnestra sp. nov., E. leda sp. nov. and E. helena sp. nov. A key to the nine Eulibitia species is presented; the morphology of Eulibitia is compared with that of Libitia, Libitiella and Ambatoiella.


Keywords:

Laniatores, Gonyleptoidea, Colombia, Ecuador, Neotropics.

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