The Pentanychidae are a small family of harvestman with about six described species, 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....

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Description

Pentanychidae range in length from about two to three millimeters. They are yellow to orange, with various degrees of black pigmentation.

Distribution

These harvestmen are found in the Pacific northwest of the USA, from middle Washington to southwestern Oregon

Oregon

Oregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...

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Relationships

The relationships of this family to others, or even if it deserves family status, are not yet clear.

Name

The name of the type genus Pentanychus (now synonymized with Erebomaster) 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...

. It refers to five branches of claws on the two latter pairs of legs.

Species

• Isolachus Briggs, 1971
• Isolachus spinosus Briggs, 1971 — Oregon

• Pentanychus Briggs, 1971
• Pentanychus hamatus Briggs, 1971 — Oregon
• Pentanychus bilobatus Briggs, 1971 — Oregon
• Pentanychus clavatus Briggs, 1971 — Oregon
• Pentanychus flavescens Briggs, 1971 — Oregon
• Pentanychus pacificus Briggs, 1971 — Washington