Maltese Palpigrade
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| Maltese Palpigrade | ||||||||||||||
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| Eukonenia christiani |
The Maltese Palpigrade (known as Il-Palpigrad ta' Malta in Maltese), endemic to the Maltese Islands, comes from the Order Palpigrada or Palpigradi, a rather primitive order of arachnids. There are 80 species of palpigrade worldwide (see the article Palpigradi). They are small and eyeless with a long tail-like structure [1].
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[edit] Discovery
The Maltese Palpigrade was first discovered in 1988 when a specimen was found in a cave at Girgenti (Malta) [1]. Since then, no news of another specimen has been heard of making the Maltese Palpigrade a very rare species[1].
[edit] General features
The Maltese Palpigrade is 1.2mm long [1], and is depicted in Wildlife of the Maltese Islands (BirdLife Malta and Nature Trust, 1995) as having a light brown colouring.
