The Fissiphalliidae are a small neotropical family of 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....

.

Name

The name of the type genus is combined from Latin

Latin

Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...

 fissus "split" and Ancient Greek

Ancient Greek

Ancient Greek is the stage of the Greek language in the periods spanning the times c. 9th–6th centuries BC, , c. 5th–4th centuries BC , and the c. 3rd century BC – 6th century AD of ancient Greece and the ancient world; being predated in the 2nd millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek...

 phallos "penis".

Description

Fissiphalliidae are about two to three millimeters long, with legs ranging from three to almost nine mm. The color ranges from yellowish to pale brownish, sometimes with stripes or dots.

Distribution

Fissiphalliidae have been found in Bogotá

Bogotá

Bogotá, Distrito Capital , from 1991 to 2000 called Santa Fé de Bogotá, is the capital, and largest city, of Colombia. It is also designated by the national constitution as the capital of the department of Cundinamarca, even though the city of Bogotá now comprises an independent Capital district...

, 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...

 at elevations of about 3,500 meters, and in lowlands of central and eastern Amazon Rainforest

Amazon Rainforest

The Amazon Rainforest , also known in English as Amazonia or the Amazon Jungle, is a moist broadleaf forest that covers most of the Amazon Basin of South America...

.

Species

• Fissiphallius Martens, 1988
• Fissiphallius chicoi Tourinho & Perez, 2006 - Pará State (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...
  
  )
• Fissiphallius martensi Pinto-da-Rocha, 2004 - Manaus
  Manaus
  Manaus is a city in Brazil, the capital of the state of Amazonas. It is situated at the confluence of the Negro and Solimões rivers. It is the most populous city of Amazonas, according to the statistics of Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics, and is a popular ecotourist destination....
  
   (Brazil)
• Fissiphallius spinulatus Martens, 1988 — 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...
  
  
• Fissiphallius sturmi Martens, 1988 — Colombia
• Fissiphallius sympatricus Martens, 1988 — Colombia
• Fissiphallius tucupi Tourinho & Perez, 2006 - Amazonas State (Brazil)

Relationships

Fissiphalliidae could form a monophyletic group with Zalmoxidae

Zalmoxidae

The Zalmoxidae are a family of harvestmen within the suborder Laniatores.-Description:Zalmoxidae are small Laniatores of dark brown to dark yellow color with varied darker mottling. Some small edaphic species are pale yellowish.-Distribution:...

, or even be a group within them.