Integrative Taxonomy and Species Delimitation in Harvestmen: A Revision of the Western North American Genus Sclerobunus (Opiliones: Laniatores: Travunioidea)

Alpha taxonomy, and specifically the delimitation of species, is becoming increasingly objective and integrative. The use of coalescent-based methods applied to genetic data is providing new tools for the discovery and delimitation of species. Here, we use an integrative approach via a combination of discovery-based multivariate morphological analyses to detect potential new species. These potential species are then used as a priori species in hypothesis-driven validation analyses with genetic data. This research focuses on the harvestmen genus Sclerobunus found throughout the mountainous regions of western North America. Based on our analyses, we conduct a revision of Sclerobunus resulting in synonymy of Cyptobunus with Sclerobunus including transfer of S. cavicolens comb. nov. and elevation of both subspecies of S. ungulatus : S. ungulatus comb. nov. and S. madhousensis comb. nov., stat. nov. The three subspecies of S. robustus are elevated, S. robustus , S. glorietus stat. nov. , and S. idahoensis stat. nov. Additionally, five new species of Sclerobunus are described from New Mexico and Colorado, including S. jemez sp. nov. , S. klomax sp. nov. , S. skywalkeri sp. nov. , S. speoventus sp. nov. , and S. steinmanni sp. nov. Several of the newly described species are single-cave endemics, and our findings suggest that further exploration of western North American cave habitats will likely yield additional new species.