The Cranaidae are a family of neotropical harvestmen within the suborder Laniatores

Laniatores

Laniatores is the largest suborder of the arachnid order Opiliones with over 4,000 described species worldwide. The majority of the species are highly dependent on humid environments and usually correlated with tropical and temperate forest habitats....

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Name

The name of the type genus is derived from Cranaus

Cranaus

In Greek mythology, Cranaus was the second King of Athens, son of river god Nile and Alkippe, succeeding Cecrops I. He is supposed to have reigned for either nine or ten years....

, the successor of Cecrops I

Cecrops I

Cecrops was a mythical king of Athens who is said to have reigned for fifty-six years. The name is not of Greek origin according to Strabo, or it might mean 'face with a tail': it is said that, born from the earth itself, he had his top half shaped like a man and the bottom half in serpent or...

 as king of Attica

Attica

Attica is a historical region of Greece, containing Athens, the current capital of Greece. The historical region is centered on the Attic peninsula, which projects into the Aegean Sea...

 in Greek mythology

Greek mythology

Greek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the ancient Greeks, concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. They were a part of religion in ancient Greece...

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Description

Body length ranges from about six to sixteen millimeters. The color normally ranges from brown to black greenish, with the legs sometimes lighter to yellowish. Some species feature white stripes on some regions.

Distribution

Most species are found in northern South America

South America

South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...

, with few species found in Panama

Panama

Panama , officially the Republic of Panama , is the southernmost country of Central America. Situated on the isthmus connecting North and South America, it is bordered by Costa Rica to the northwest, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north and the Pacific Ocean to the south. The...

 and Costa Rica

Costa Rica

Costa Rica , officially the Republic of Costa Rica is a multilingual, multiethnic and multicultural country in Central America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, Panama to the southeast, the Pacific Ocean to the west and the Caribbean Sea to the east....

. The diversity of the family is probably explained by the diversity of habitats in the cloud forest

Cloud forest

A cloud forest, also called a fog forest, is a generally tropical or subtropical evergreen montane moist forest characterized by a persistent, frequent or seasonal low-level cloud cover, usually at the canopy level. Cloud forests often exhibit an abundance of mosses covering the ground and...

s of Ecuador

Ecuador

Ecuador , officially the Republic of Ecuador is a representative democratic republic in South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and by the Pacific Ocean to the west. It is one of only two countries in South America, along with Chile, that do not have a border...

 and Colombia

Colombia

Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...

, ranging from elevations of 500 to 3,500 m. Some species were even collected from elevations as high as 5,000 meters.

Relationships

The four subfamilies constituting the Cranaidae were transferred from Gonyleptidae

Gonyleptidae

Gonyleptidae is a Neotropical family of harvestmen with more than 800 species, the largest in the Suborder Laniatores and the second largest of the Opiiones as a whole...

 by Kury (1994), erecting it as a sister group to (Cosmetidae

Cosmetidae

Cosmetidae, with around 700 species, is the second most diverse family of the Suborder Laniatores. They are distributed from Argentina to southern USA, most diverse in northern South America, Central America and Mexico...

 + Gonyleptidae). Cranainae and Stygnocranainae are probably closely related.

Subfamilies

See the List of Cranaidae species for a list of currently described species.

• Cranainae — French Guiana
  French Guiana
  French Guiana is an overseas region of France, consisting of a single overseas department located on the northern Atlantic coast of South America. It has borders with two nations, Brazil to the east and south, and Suriname to the west...
  
  , Peru
  Peru
  Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....
  
  , Ecuador, Colombia, Panama, Brazil
  Brazil
  Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
  
  , Costa Rica, Trinidad
  Trinidad
  Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands and numerous landforms which make up the island nation of Trinidad and Tobago. It is the southernmost island in the Caribbean and lies just off the northeastern coast of Venezuela. With an area of it is also the fifth largest in...
  
  and Venezuela (57 genera, 121 species)
• Heterocranainae — Ecuador, Colombia (1 genus, 2 species)
• Prostygninae — Peru, Ecuador, Venezuela, Colombia (15 genera, 17 species)
• Stygnicranainae — Ecuador, Colombia (2 genera, 3 species)