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A new species of harvestman, Paecilaema batman, from Brazilian limestone caves of the state of Goiás, is described, and a remarkable intraspecific color patch variation is discussed. Paecilaema batman sp. nov. differs from other species of the genus by the following combination of features: chelicera similar in both sexes; prosoma without color patches; typical color patches on area I; and area III with two high spines. The new species is considered troglophilous.

During the years 1993–2001 the monitoring of the soil surface fauna was carried out in a floodplain fo- rest in the Ranšpurk National Nature Reserve (south Moravia). The harvestmen assemblages fluctuation is described in detail in this paper. The method of pitfall traps was used. A total of 3174 individuals of seven harvestmen species were collected. The species composition was very similar to other research results from the southern Moravian floodplain forest. Only the dominance values differ from the values in the other localities. All of the registered species prefer moisture and shadow places. The highest abundance was observed in Astrobunus laevipes (Canestrini, 1872), Nemastoma lugubre (Müller, 1776), Oligolophus tridens (C. L. Koch, 1936) and Rilaena triangularis (Herbst, 1799). The dynamics of harvestmen occurrence during the year had a different development than in other groups of invertebrates. Harvestmen mostly occurred in pitfall traps in autumn and winter months. The highest abundance of harvestmen in traps was observed in December and January. In July 1997, disastrous flood affected all groups of invertebrates. The flood had a minimal impact on the abundance of harvestmen in pitfall traps.

The development of winter sport resorts above the timberline may affect every ecosystem component. We analyzed the effect of ski-pistes on the abundance and species richness of arthropods (namely carabids, spiders, opilionids, and grasshoppers) trapped in grasslands adjacent to the ski-run, on ski-pistes and at the edge between these two habitat types. Our results showed that diversity of brachypterous carabids, spiders, and grasshoppers decreased significantly from natural grasslands to ski-pistes. This was not true for the macropterous carabid guild, which included species with contrasting ecological requirements. The analysis of indicator species (IndVal) showed that most of the species (some of them precinctive to restricted areas in the north-western Alps) had clear preferences for natural grassland and few taxa were limited to ski-pistes. Generalized linear models suggested that the local extent of grass and rock cover can significantly affect assemblages: the low grass cover of ski-pistes, in particular, was a serious hindrance to colonization by spider, grasshopper, brachypterous, and some macropterous carabid species. The results obtained, support concerns over the possible disruption of local ecosystem functionality and over the conservation of arthropod species which are endemic to restricted alpine areas. In order to retain arthropod ground-dwelling fauna we suggest that: (i) new, environmentally friendly ways of constructing pistes should be developed to preserve as much soil and grass cover as possible; (ii) existing ski-pistes should be restored through management to promote the recovery of local vegetation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present work refers to the study of a community of soil-surface arthropods in a forest established through territorial arrangement in the area of Borod (Bihor County). Invertebrates were determined after collected from 5 habitats with the help of the Barber traps. A total of 348 invertebrates were collected, belonging to 16 different taxa. In habitat No. 4 we found the highest number of individuals, and habitat No. 5 is the richest in taxa. Opilionids and Araneids have the highest occurrence, being euconstant and the number of constant and euconstant taxa combined represents almost 40% of the total taxa, which suggests a lower stability of structure among the main groups of invertebrates that were identified. The trophic spectrum indicates the predominance of carnivore predators, followed by detritivores, herbivores and parasites. The diversity and the similarity indexes have close values showing the uniformity of the zoocenotic composition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The morphology of the scent glands of Trogulus tricarinatus (Linnaeus 1767) (Trogulidae), a small, soil-dwelling opilionid species, was investigated by means of serial histological semi thin-sections. The glands constitute paired prosomal glandular sacs that open to the body surface via one pore (ozopore) on either side of the body, dorsally adjacent to coxae I. Consistent with the generally recognized organization of scent glands in Opiliones, an anterior non-secretory region of the reservoir could be distinguished from a posterior secretory area, the latter characterized by a thick vacuolated epithelium. However, there are several unusual scent gland features in T. tricarinatus. First, the ozopores are hidden, with each being surrounded by a kind of external secretion atrium formed by a dorso-lateral integumental fold (dorsal limitation), coxa I (ventral limitation), and a wall of projecting cuticular papillae (outer lateral limitation). A horizontal slit ("secondary opening") between the top of this wall and the dorsal integumental fold is externally visible. Secondly, no fluid, but solid spherical structures that may represent condensed secretion are found in the reservoirs. Thus, the secretion must pass through the external atrium before reaching the outside, perhaps as a gas produced by slow sublimation of solid secretion boli. Scent gland organization in T. tricarinatus, especially the findings of an external atrium around the ozopores, is not consistent with use in chemical defence, as is generally assumed for scent glands of Opiliones, but indicates a possibly non-defensive role. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]