Megabunus is a genus of harvestmen with six known recent species. All occur in Europe, mostly in the vicinity of the Alps

Alps

The Alps is one of the great mountain range systems of Europe, stretching from Austria and Slovenia in the east through Italy, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Germany to France in the west....

.

In Megabunus, the pedipalp

Pedipalp

Pedipalps , are the second pair of appendages of the prosoma in the subphylum Chelicerata. They are traditionally thought to be homologous with mandibles in Crustacea and insects, although more recent studies Pedipalps (commonly shortened to palps or palpi), are the second pair of appendages of the...

s are armed with strong ventral spines, especially on the femur, probably to hold fast to prey.

Name

The genus name is derived from 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...

 mega "big" and -bunus, which is a common ending for certain opilionid genera.

Species

• Megabunus armatus (Kulczynski, 1887) ( Tirol
  German Tyrol
  German Tyrol is a historical region in the Alps now divided between Austria and Italy. It includes largely ethnic German areas of historical County of Tyrol: the Austrian state of Tyrol and the province of South Tyrol but not the largely Italian-speaking province of Trentino .-History:German...
  
  s, Slovenia
  Slovenia
  Slovenia , officially the Republic of Slovenia , is a country in Central and Southeastern Europe touching the Alps and bordering the Mediterranean. Slovenia borders Italy to the west, Croatia to the south and east, Hungary to the northeast, and Austria to the north, and also has a small portion of...
  
  )
• Megabunus bergomas Chemini, 1985 (Italy)
• Megabunus diadema
  Megabunus diadema
  Megabunus diadema is a species of harvestman widely distributed in Europe, where it has been found in Iceland, Faroe Islands, Western Norway, Great Britain, Western France, Belgium and Northern Spain....
  
  (Fabricius, 1779) (Western Europe)
• Megabunus lesserti Schenkel, 1927 (Germany, Austria, Switzerland; possibly a variation of M. armatus)
• Megabunus rhinoceros (Canestrini, 1872) (Swiss Alps)
• Megabunus vignai Martens, 1978 (Italy)

Further reading

(1978): Spinnentiere, Arachnida, Weberknechte, Opiliones, ser. Die Tierwelt Deutschlands (Dahl,Friedrich ed.), vol. 64. VEB Gustav Fischer Verlag, Jena

External links

• BioImages: Pictures of M. diadema