Pycnogonida
No. of jars: 933
No. of species: 109
Types: 20
Sea spiders (Pycnogonida) are bizarre animals with extremely elongate legs and a comparably small body. Another name often used for these animals, Pantopoda, means ‘all legs’ and epitomises this morphology. Sea spiders are distantly related to arachnids (spiders and allies) but are an ancient and distinct evolutionary lineage. Roughly 1300 species are known from marine habitats ranging from Caribbean coral reefs to the Antarctic abyssal where giant species of up to 75 cm in body length have been collected. The LIB collection of pycnogonids is quite large and comprises more than 100 species of which 20 are represented by type-material. Most species were collected during expeditions of the Arctic and Antarctic seas.
To the catalogues:
- Weidner, H., 1959: Die Entomologischen Sammlungen des Zoologischen Staatsinstituts und Zoologischen Museums Hamburg, I. Teil, Pararthropoda und Chelicerata I. - Mitt. hamb. zool. Mus. Inst., 57: 89-142. [ PDF ]
- Rack, G., 1971: Die Entomologischen Sammlungen des Zoologischen Instituts und Zoologischen Museums Hamburg, I. und II. Teil (Nachtrag), Pararthropoda und Chelicerata. Mitt. hamb. zool. Mus. Inst., 67: 109-133. [ PDF ]