The name of the type genus is a combination of Ancient Greekagora "gathering" and stenos "few", referring to the rarity of the family at the time of its discovery.[1]
Description
These harvestmen range in body length from two to about five millimeters. Their coloring ranges from yellowish to dark brown. Some show yellow stripes or white or green patches.[1]
In older schemes, the now obsolete "Zamorinae" were the basal clade, with Agoristeninae and Leiosteninae as sister groups. Agoristeninae is sister group to all Gonyleptoidea except Stygnopsidae.[1]
^ abcPinto-da-Rocha, Ricardo & Kury, Adriano B. (2007): Agoristenidae Šilhavý, 1973. In: Pinto-da-Rocha et al. 2007: 171ff
Further reading
Kury, Adriano B. (1997b): A new subfamily of Agoristenidae, with comments on suprageneric relationships of the family (Arachnida, Opiliones, Laniatores). Trop. Zool.10: 333-346.
Kury, Adriano B. (1997c): Os Stygnopsidae na filogenia de Gonyleptoidea, com comentários sobre a biogeografia da superfamilia. P. 30 in Actas del Primer Encuentro de Aracnólogos del Cono Sur. Montevideo, Uruguay.
Pinto-da-Rocha, R., Machado, G. & Giribet, G. (eds.) (2007): Harvestmen - The Biology of Opiliones. Harvard University PressISBN0-674-02343-9
Pinto-da-Rocha, R. and Hara, M.R. (2010) : New familial assignments for three species of Neotropical harvestmen based on cladistic analysis (Arachnida: Opiliones: Laniatores). Zootaxa, 2241: 33–46.
