Vol. 48 No. 4, 2009

Notes on Santobius from Vanuatu and Fiji and the Status of the Eastern Melanesian Ibalonius (Arachnida: Opiliones: Podoctidae)

Adriano B. Kury^1,* and Glauco Machado²

¹Departamento de Invertebrados, Museu Nacional, UFRJ, Quinta da Boa Vista, São Cristóvão, 20.940-040, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil
²Departamento de Ecologia, Instituto de Biociências, Rua do Matão, trav. 14, nº 321, 05.508-900, São Paulo, SP, Brazil

Adriano B. Kury and Glauco Machado (2009) A group of the Podoctidae, formed by 4 Melanesian species is newly recognized.  The generic name Santobius Roewer, 1949, hitherto monotypic, is available and should be given to this group, which is entirely rediagnosed.  Mesoceratula Roewer, 1949 and Ibantila Šilhavý, 1969 are herein considered new junior subjective synonyms of Santobius.  Mesoceras annulipes Sørensen, 1886, currently in Ibalonius, is removed to Santobius.  Consequently, the generic name based on this species, Mesoceras, invalid due to homonymy with a genus of Mollusca, is transferred from the synonymy of Ibalonius to Santobius.  A key is given to the 4 species of Santobius.  Comments  are made on descriptions of S. annulipes and S. spinitarsus.  Some new morphological terms are defined for the taxonomy of the Podoctidae.

Key words: Laniatores, Mollusca, Diptera, Homonymy, Cuba.

*Correspondence: E-mail:adrianok@gmail.com