Nipponopsalididae Martens, 1976  -  Nipponopsalis Martens & Suzuki, 1966

Superficially similar in external appearance to the European Ischyropsalis and North American Taracus, the south-east Asian genus Nipponopsalis was established by Martens and Suzuki (1966) and later elevated to family level (Martens 1976). Within the Troguloidea, Nipponopsalis is unique for its male genital morphology. The penial glans is separated in three branches, two of which enclose the central one with the stylus. The external branches are pulled back by the internal muscles and are probably readjusted by membraneous pockets that can be inflated by haemolymph pressure. Nipponopsalis appears isolated within the Troguloidea for this peculiar penial morphology that is support by molecular studies (Giribet et al. 2010). In comparison with Taracus and Ischyropsalis, Nipponopsalis differs in the composition of the sternal area, the spination of the chelicerae and in size, which is considerably smaller in average (2-3 mm). Species are known from Korea and Japan and have been collected under logs, from fern roots and in caves.

References
Giribet, G., L. Vogt, A. Pérez González, P. Sharma and A. B. Kury. 2010. A multilocus approach to harvestman (Arachnida: Opiliones) phylogeny with emphasis on biogeography and the systematics of Laniatores. Cladistics 26:408-437.
Martens, J., and S. Suzuki. 1966. Zur Systematischen Stellung Ostasiatischer Ischyropsalididen-Arten (Arachnoidea, Opiliones, Ischyropsalididae). Annotationes Zoologicae Japonensis 39(4):215-221.
Martens, J. 1976. Genitalmorphologie, System und Phylogenie der Weberknechte (Arachnida: Opiliones). Entomologica Germanica 3(1/2):51-68.

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