Haasus judaeus Roewer, 1949
Haasus judaeus is a very small (total length under 2mm) species of harvestman found throughout the mediterranean climate zone of Israel. It inhabits humid habitats, such as wetlands, leaf litter and cave entrances.
Haasus judaeus was found to be a sister species of H. naasane Aharon, Ballesteros, Crawford, Friske, Gainett, Langford, Santibáñez-López, Ya'aran, Gavish-Regev & Sharma, 2019, which is
photo by: Jesus Ballesteros
An individual in its natural habitat
found in a single cave in the Judean desert. Haasus judaeus differs from H. naasane by posessing eyes, as well as a shorter body, darker color, more robust legs and by proportions of the pedipalps.
Typically to harvestmen of the suborder Laniatores, H. judaeus is carnivorous, catching its prey with the aid of its strong, spiny pedipalps.
Haasus used originally ascribed to the widely distributed family Phgalangodidae. It was recently found to belong in Pyramidopidae, a largely Afrotropical family. Haasus is currently considered to be a relict taxon in the Holarctic region.
Taxonomic Classification
Class: Arachnida
Order: Opiliones
Family: Pyramidopidae
Genus: Haasus
Species: Haasus judaeus
Author: Roewer, 1949
Distribution map
Accession in GENBANK:
Ecological Classification
Category: Troglophile
Cave zone: Entrance
Microhabitat: On ground
Articles about Haasus judaeus:
Roewer, C. F. (1949) Über Phalangodiden I. (Subfam. Phalangodinae, Tricommatinae, Samoinae.) Weitere Weberknechte XIII. Senckenbergiana, 30(1/3), 11–61.
https://mndi.museunacional.ufrj.br/aracnologia/pdfliteratura/Roewer/Roewer%201949%20Phalang%20I.pdf
Staręga, W. K. (1973). Beitrag zur Kenntnis der Weberknechte (Opiliones) des Nahen Ostens. In Annales Zoologici (Vol. 30, No. 6, pp. 129-153). Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe.
Aharon, S., Ballesteros, J. A., Crawford, A. R., Friske, K., Gainett, G., Langford, B., Santibáñez-López, C. E., Ya’aran, S., Gavish-Regev, E. & Sharma, P. P. (2019). The anatomy of an unstable node: a Levantine relict precipitates phylogenomic dissolution of higher-level relationships of the armoured harvestmen (Arachnida: Opiliones: Laniatores). Invertebrate Systematics, 33(5), 697-717.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1071/IS19002