Sabacon


Sabacon is a genus of the monotypic harvestman family Sabaconidae, with 59 species.

Description

Species of the genus Sabacon have usually thickened pedipalps with stiff, fine hairs, which is unique among harvestmen. Although the small eye tubercle is usually not ornamented, there is a spine on one Nepalese species. Males have long, thin legs, females are stouter.
While the Asian and North American species are easy to differentiate from one another by male genital traits. The various European species are very similar to each other, and can be closely related to Sabacon cavicolens from the eastern United States. Another American species Sabacon mitchelli, which, like the larger S. cavicolens also occurs in the eastern United States, notably lacks cheliceral glands in the male. Species from the western United States seem closely related to Asian forms. Sabacon astoriensis, initially collected from dried seaweed and debris in beach dunes from Oregon, is morphologically similar to the Asian species Sabacon dentipalpis and Sabacon makinoi.

Range

Sabacon species exhibits a wide, yet highly disjunct, distribution. Species can be found throughout North America, Europe, and Asia, though individual species usually have very restricted distributions.
The genus Sabacon is widespread in the temperate northern hemisphere, even extending into the subarctic, with the most southern records from caves in the southeastern United States and high elevations in Nepal. The center of diversification seems to be in Asia, where many species were described from Japan, Korea and Nepal. Some species occur in Europe.

Ecology

Almost all Sabacon species prefer moist, cool microhabitats, and many species live in caves, but none are modified for cave life. Outside of caves they are often found in forests or shaded ravines.

Etymology

The name of the type genus is supposedly derived from "Sabacon", an Egyptian ruler. Consequentially, genus name is treated as masculine, although before its derivation was clarified some authors or online sources mistakenly treated it as neuter, e.g. 's Biology Catalog.

Fossil record

There is one extinct species †Sabacon claviger, known from Eocene Baltic amber. Another named species †Sabacon bachofeni also from Baltic amber was later revised as its junior synonym. Staręga indicates that for all such the Baltic Amber material, "The Eocene locality fits into the present range of the genus Sabacon"

Relationships

Sabaconidae belongs to the superfamily Ischyropsalidoidea. The family Sabaconidae originally consisted of just the genus Sabacon, though Taracus was later added to the family. Hesperonemastoma was later transferred in to further expand this family after molecular studies confirmed it was closely related to Taracus. However, a new family, Taracidae, was then erected for Hesperonemastoma and Taracus, leaving Sabaconidae restored once again with just a single genus. Currently, Sabaconidae is thought to be more closely related to Taracidae than Ischyropsalididae. The internal relationships of Sabaconidae are poorly understood.

Taxonomy

Sabacon contains the following species, per World Catalog of Opiliones. Of the 59 described species, two are further subdivided into subspecies.Sabacon aigoual Martens, 2015 Sabacon akiyoshiensis Suzuki, 1963 Sabacon altomontanus Martens, 1983 Sabacon astoriensis Shear, 1975 Sabacon beatae Martens, 2015 Sabacon beishanensis Martens, 2015 Sabacon briggsi Shear, 1975 Sabacon bryantii Sabacon cavicolens Sabacon chomolongmae Martens, 1972
  • † Sabacon claviger .Sabacon crassipalpis Sabacon dentipalpis Suzuki, 1949 Sabacon dhaulagiri Martens, 1972 Sabacon distinctus Suzuki, 1974 Sabacon franzi Roewer, 1953 Sabacon gonggashan Tsurusaki & Song, 1993 Sabacon hinkukhola Martens, 2015 Sabacon imamurai Suzuki, 1964 Sabacon iriei Suzuki, 1974 Sabacon ishizuchi Suzuki, 1974 Sabacon jaegeri Martens, 2015 Sabacon jiriensis Martens, 1972 Sabacon kangding Martens, 2015 Sabacon maipokhari Martens, 2015 Sabacon makinoi Suzuki, 1949
  • * Sabacon makinoi makinoi Suzuki, 1949
  • * Sabacon makinoi sugimotoi Suzuki & Tsurusaki, 1983 Sabacon martensi Tsurusaki & Song, 1993 Sabacon minshanensis Martens, 2015 Sabacon minutissimus Martens, 2015 Sabacon mitchelli Crosby & Bishop, 1924 Sabacon monacanthus Zhao, Martens & Zhang, 2018 Sabacon multiserratus Martens, 2015 Sabacon nishikawai Martens, 2015 Sabacon occidentalis Sabacon okadai Suzuki, 1941 Sabacon palpogranulatus Martens, 1972 Sabacon paradoxus Simon, 1879 Sabacon pasonianus Luque, 1991 Sabacon pauperoserratus Martens, 2015 Sabacon petarberoni Martens, 2015 Sabacon picosantrum Martens, 1983 Sabacon pygmaeus Miyosi, 1942 Sabacon relictoides Martens, 2015 Sabacon relictus Marten, 1972 Sabacon rossopacificus Martens, 2015 Sabacon rupinala Martens, 2015 Sabacon satoikioi Miyosi, 1942 Sabacon schawalleri Martens, 2015 Sabacon sergeidedicatus Martens, 1989 Sabacon sheari Cokendolpher, 1984 Sabacon simbuakhola Martens, 2015 Sabacon simoni Dresco, 1952 Sabacon sineglandula Martens, 2015 Sabacon siskiyou Shear, 1975 Sabacon suzukii Zhao, Martens & Zhang, 2018 Sabacon thakkolanus Martens, 2015 Sabacon unicornis Martens, 1972 Sabacon viscayanus Simon, 1881Sabacon zateevi Trilikauskas & Azarkina, 2021