Belongs within: Zalmoxoidea.
The Escadabiidae is a small family of short-legged harvestmen that has so far only been recorded from coastal regions and inland caves of Brazil.
Characters (from Kury & Pérez González 2007): Dorsal scutum 2.5–3.5 mm long. Dorsal scutum campaniform, with sides straight, hourglass-shaped in a few species. Ocularium small, with a few granules and sometimes a median spine. Mesotergum divided into four areas by straight transverse grooves, without relevant armature, area I longer than others. Sternites smooth and unarmed or with huge lateral projections. Chelicerae weak and not sexually dimorphic; basichelicerite short with well-marked bulla. Pedipalps more or less as long as dorsal scutum, without special modifications; femur with two or three ventral setiferous tubercles, patella with one mesal setiferous tubercle; tibia and tarsus each with a row of a few ventromesal and ventroectal setiferous tubercles. All legs short and granulous; coxa IV of male coarsely granulate with dorsoapical apophysis made up of two subequal branches, lateral border parallel to main axis of body; femora I–II straight, IV curved subbasally, strongly incrassate in males of Escadabius; tibiae I–II with differentiated porose distal area that may develop into a deep notch and/or huge apophysis. Penis with pair of rigid conductors and reversible capsula interna; ventral plate not defined; pars distalis well separated from pars basalis by constriction (absent in Escadabius), with ventral lamina apicalis that may be armed with small lateral spines; pars distalis with ventral keel-shaped protuberance; pair of well-developed rigid conductors that do not sink deeply into glans socket (vestigial in Escadabius); stylus very large and apically surrounded by well-developed hornlike parastylar collar.
<==Escadabiidae
| i. s.: Jim Soares 1979KPG07, K03
| `--*J. benignus Soares 1979K03
| Recifesius Soares 1978KPG07, K03
| `--*R. pernambucanus Soares 1978K03
|--Spaeleoleptes Soares 1966P-GC17, K03
| `--*S. spaeleus Soares 1966K03
`--+--Baculigerus Soares 1979P-GC17, K03
| `--*B. littoris Soares 1979K03
`--+--Escadabius Roewer 1949P-GC17, K03
| |--*E. ventricalcaratus Roewer 1949K03
| |--E. schubarti Roewer 1949K03
| `--E. spinicoxa Roewer 1949K03
`--Brotasus Roewer 1928P-GC17, KA-Z11
`--*B. megalobunus Roewer 1928K03, KA-Z11
*Type species of generic name indicated
References
[K03] Kury, A. B. 2003. Annotated catalogue of the Laniatores of the New World (Arachnida, Opiliones). Revista Ibérica de Aracnología, volumen especial monográfico 1: 1–337.
[KA-Z11] Kury, A. B., & M. A. Alonso-Zarazaga. 2011. Addenda and corrigenda to the “Annotated catalogue of the Laniatores of the New World (Arachnida, Opiliones)”. Zootaxa 3034: 47–68.
[KPG07] Kury, A. B., & A. Pérez González. 2007. Escadabiidae Kury and Pérez in Kury, 2003. In: Pinto-da-Rocha, R., G. Machado & G. Giribet (eds) Harvestmen: The Biology of Opiliones pp. 191–194. Harvard University Press: Cambridge (Massachusetts).
[P-GC17] Pérez-González, A., F. S. Ceccarelli, B. G. O. Monte, D. N. Proud, M. B. DaSilva & M. E. Bichuette. 2017. Light from dark: a relictual troglobite reveals a broader ancestral distribution for kimulid harvestmen (Opiliones: Laniatores: Kimulidae) in South America. PLoS One 12 (11): e0187919.