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an undescribed Megacina from far northern CA that actually has very little "Mega" in it's cina ...

Ortholasma coronadense! Perhaps the coolest looking #Opiliones in southern California. Lots of interesting microsculpture on the body. Found underneath a rock embedded in the soil.

Just released. This Opiliones family record for Australia came from the very first vial and the very first specimen that I examined in June 2023 MuséumGenève What a very good luck!!! It was a pleasure wrote this paper with Willians and Lionel. Access at: doi.org/10.1093/zoolin…

Nuncia verrucosa, an incredible Triaenonychidae harvestmen from Chile and Argentina. Take a look at the amazing body ornamentation and acute ocularium. This is probably one of the last posts with this combination name... novelties will come soon! Keep tunned. 😉

Still busy at the moment and I don't feel like posting too much on here for the time being anyway but I'm back from the Alps and I have quite a lot of good beasts to share. Trogulus cristatus (likely male), an absolut unit (15mm body length !) endemic to the Southern Alps.

large female Antrodiaetus from Lake County, CA. to the best of my knowledge, the southernmost known record for this species (presumably A pacificus)

hierarchical "loops-on-loops" structure of the cribellate silk of a Kukulcania spider recent research (not mine) shows that this leads to amazing fiber extensibility royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rs… in situ photo from southern Utah, spider living in Yucca

Look our last collaborative research paper (between Instituto Clemente Estable @Labre_arg and Aracnologia MACN) First direct evidence that Opiliones' penis contains structures that can remove sperm from the female ovipositor. Link for free read or download before August 16, 2024: authors.elsevier.com/c/1jKkXA7vO-OQb

Happy to share a major contribution to the taxonomy and systematics of South American harvestmen family Triaenonychydae zookeys.pensoft.net/article/120068/ This is one result of Willians' PhD thesis made at Aracnologia MACN, with the synergistic collaboration with Gonzalo Giribet and Shahan Derkarabetian

From science to literature: New arachnid species named after Gabriela Mistral and Pablo Neruda | Blog blog.pensoft.net/2024/07/30/fro… vía Pensoft

Dicranolasma soerensenii First one from the Albaréa cave in Sospel, second one in a rock pile next to a forest stream in Sospel as well. No matter how often I look at these, they're still one of the goofiest looking harvestman families.

Take a look to our last paper where we described a remarkable (and beautiful) new genus and species of Opiliones (Assamiidae: Filopalpinae) from highland Ethiopia. The new species was named after the renowned opilionologist Prof. Jochen Martens. sciencepress.mnhn.fr/en/periodiques…

Finally our probe set targeting Ultraconserved elements (UCEs) in Decapoda (and other Malacostraca) is out! I am so happy to be part this with Jonas Geburzi Shahan Derkarabetian and Gonzalo Giribet check our manuscript here and see more info👇 frontiersin.org/journals/marin…

[#arachnology] African highland harvestman: New genus and #newspecies of Filopalpinae Martens, 2022 (Opiliones, Assamiidae) from Wonchi crater, Oromia province, 🇪🇹. ✒️ Willians PORTO, Panagiotis KONTOS & Abel Pérez González 🔗 zoosystema.com/46/22 #opiliones #arachnologist

For #Arachtober, let's talk about a taxonomically complicated, poorly studied, but widespread group, the Linyphiidae. Known as the sheet web weavers, this group builds horizontal sheet webs in grass, shrubs, under leaf litter, in mud, and in crevices belowground.

Because it's #Arachtober let me show you the weird but beautiful opilionid Mistralia verrucosa. We recently established this genus (named after the Chilean poet Gabriela Mistral, who was the first Latin American author to receive a Nobel Prize in Literature)to include two species

Super cool mossy harvestman from Sumatra. I wonder if the mossy bits are collected externally or simply part of its body? Podoctidae > Baso sp. Shahan Derkarabetian ?

Another harvestman with what appears to be a layer of wax on the anterior half of its dorsum. From Balikpapan, Kalimantan, Indonesia Shahan Derkarabetian

Sci-comm at its finest! Shahan Derkarabetian and I just published a systematic study of arachnids in the Magic: The Gathering card game (Magic: The Gathering). We discuss the evolution of spiders and other arachnids across the multiverse! Check it out: virginianaturalhistorysociety.com/wp-content/upl…

We published a paper on the spiders in Magic: the Gathering! Systematics, taxonomy, and evolution.