The Synthetonychiidae are a small family of harvestman with a handful of species in a single genus. They are endemic

Endemic (ecology)

Endemism is the ecological state of being unique to a defined geographic location, such as an island, nation or other defined zone, or habitat type; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsewhere. For example, all species of lemur are endemic to the...

 to New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

.

Description

Species in this family are between one and two millimeters long, with legs up to almost six mm.

Relationships

Synthetonychiidae seem to be closely related to the Triaenonychidae

Triaenonychidae

The Triaenonychidae are a family of harvestmen with about 120 genera and more than 440 described species.-Description:Most Triaenonychidae are from three to five millimeters long, although some species from South Africa can be only long. Some species in the subfamily Adaeinae are almost long....

 from the Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

n region.

Name

The name of the type genus is combined 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...

 synthetos "compounded" and onychion, the diminutive of onyx "claw".

Species

• Synthetonychia oliveae Forster, 1954
• Synthetonychia acuta Forster, 1954
• Synthetonychia cornua Forster, 1954
• Synthetonychia fiordensis Forster, 1954
• Synthetonychia glacialis Forster, 1954
• Synthetonychia florae Forster, 1954
• Synthetonychia hughsoni Forster, 1954
• Synthetonychia minuta Forster, 1954
• Synthetonychia obtusa Forster, 1954
• Synthetonychia oparara Forster, 1954
• Synthetonychia proxima Forster, 1954
• Synthetonychia ramosa Forster, 1954
• Synthetonychia sinuosa Forster, 1954
• Synthetonychia wairarapae Forster, 1954