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The Opiliones family Neopilionidae is restricted to the terranes of the former temperate Gondwana: South America, Africa, Australia, New Caledonia and New Zealand. Despite decades of morphological study of this unique fauna, it has been difficult reconciling the classic species of the group (some described over a century ago) with recent cladistic morphological work and previous molecular work. Here we attempted to investigate the pattern and timing of diversification of Neopilionidae by sampling across the distribution range of the family and sequencing three markers commonly used in Sanger-based approaches (18S rRNA, 28S rRNA and cytochrome-c oxidase subunit I). We recovered a well-supported and stable clade including Ballarra (an Australian ballarrine) and the Enantiobuninae from South America, Australia, New Caledonia and New Zealand, but excluding Vibone (a ballarrine from South Africa). We further found a division between West and East Gondwana, with the South American Thrasychirus/Thrasychiroides always being sister group to an Australian–Zealandian (i.e. Australia + New Zealand + New Caledonia) clade. Resolution of the Australian–Zealandian taxa was analysis-dependent, but some analyses found Martensopsalis, from New Caledonia, as the sister group to an Australian–New Zealand clade. Likewise, the species from New Zealand formed a clade in some analyses, but Mangatangi often came out as a separate lineage from the remaining species. However, the Australian taxa never constituted a monophyletic group, with Ballarra always segregating from the remaining Australian species, which in turn constituted 1–3 clades, depending on the analysis. Our results identify several generic inconsistencies, including the possibility of Thrasychiroides nested within Thrasychirus, Forsteropsalis being paraphyletic with respect to Pantopsalis, and multiple lineages of Megalopsalis in Australia. In addition, the New Zealand Megalopsalis need generic reassignment: Megalopsalis triascuta will require its own genus and M. turneri is here transferred to Forsteropsalis, as Forsteropsalis turneri (Marples, 1944), comb. nov. 

Triaenonychidae Sørensen in L. Koch, 1886 is a large family of Opiliones with ~480 described species broadly distributed across temperate forests in the Southern Hemisphere. However, it remains poorly understood taxonomically, as no comprehensive phylogenetic work has ever been undertaken. In this study we capitalise on samples largely collected by us during the last two decades and use Sanger DNA-sequencing techniques to produce a large phylogenetic tree with 300 triaenonychid terminals representing nearly 50% of triaenonychid genera and including representatives from all the major geographic areas from which they are known. Phylogenetic analyses using maximum likelihood and Bayesian inference methods recover the family as diphyletic, placing Lomanella Pocock, 1903 as the sister group to the New Zealand endemic family Synthetonychiidae Forster, 1954. With the exception of the Laurasian representatives of the family, all landmasses contain non-monophyletic assemblages of taxa. To determine whether this non-monophyly was the result of Gondwanan vicariance, ancient cladogenesis due to habitat regionalisation, or more recent over-water dispersal, we inferred divergence times. We found that most divergence times between landmasses predate Gondwanan breakup, though there has been at least one instance of transoceanic dispersal – to New Caledonia. In all, we identify multiple places in the phylogeny where taxonomic revision is needed, and transfer Lomanella outside of Triaenonychidae in order to maintain monophyly of the family.