Belisana xxx was extracted from mining boreholes in the arid West Australian Pilbara region. It represents a genus that is widespread in tropical forests of South and Southeast Asia, reaching the tropical north and east of Australia. Belisana xxx is thus presumably a relict whose epigean ancestor lived in the area before the aridification of Australia starting in the early Cenozoic.
Photos: Huon L. Clark
Buitinga xxx was collected in Grotte de La Tortue on Réunion, one of the oldest lave tubes on the island (~300,000 years). Congeneric species are known from East Africa, and the genus does not seem to have reached Madagascar. Since Pholcidae do not balloon, the now extinct epigean ancestor of Buitinga xxx probably reached the island by highly improbable means (such as rafts or storms).
Photos: T. Percheron