Corresponding author: José G. Palacios-Vargas (
Academic editor: Louis Deharveng
A new species of
Only
While studying the Collembola material from a project of the Centre de Recerca Ecologica i Aplicacions Forestals of Barcelona (CREAF) in Nicaragua, we found many specimens of a new species which is described herein.
Abbreviations used in this paper are: Ant. = antennal segment; Abd. = abdominal tergite; M = macroseta; m = microseta; PAO = postantennal organ; vgs = ventral guard sensillum; Th. = thoraxic tergite. Chaetotaxy follows
Holotype mounted on slide. Original label: “23/8/07 Nicaragua: Mesas de Moropotente (Estelí). 1260 m.s.n.m. Coord. UTM 16P0581619 y 1456016 Suelo Bosque monoespecífico
55 females, 38 males, 9 juveniles, 33 of undetermined sex, all under slides. Two females and two males will be deposited in Museum National d’Histoire Naturelle de Paris (MNHNP) and Museum d’Histoire Naturelle de Genève (MHNG), the others are kept at Facultad de Ciencias, UNAM.
Postantennal organ with about 20 vesicles in an ellipse; ocular area, head, and body with setae of different size; Ant. IV with a well developed ventral sensorial file with 20–25 setae; one lateral teeth on each side of unguis, presence of setae d1 unpaired on head and m2 on Th. II. Abd. IV with three rows of setae, p1 longer than seta p2 and a1. No capitate tenent hairs on tibiotarsi.
Body length: 1.1–1.6 mm (mean 1.4 mm, n=10). Color of body deep dark blue. Cuticular granulation strong. Body setae simple and smooth, medium macrosetae (25–35 µm) withslightly capitate tips, short microsetae (9–12 µm) usually acuminate, sensorial setae longer than macrosetae (60 – 81 µm)
Antennae as long as head. Ant. I with 7 setae, Ant. II with 12 setae, including one ventral seta very small. Ant. III and IV dorsally fused. Antennal segments ratio I: II: III+IV as 1: 1.25–2.75. Sensory organ of Ant. III with two small straight internal sensilla under a cuticular fold, two guard sensilla, and 1 microsensillum close to vgs. Ant. IV with trilobed apical bulb, 6 cylindrical sensilla, seta “i”, microsensillum and subapical organite (
Postantennal organ elliptical composed of 14–20 simple vesicles, as large as the nearby ocelli. Eye patch with 8+8 small ocelli (
Dorsal chaetotaxy as in
Tibiotarsi I, II, III with 18, 18, 17, setae respectively, without tenent hairs. Unguis with one tooth on each side, 1/3 from base, and a tiny inconspicuous tooth on inner edge. Ratio tibiotarsus III: unguis about 1.3 (
Furcula well developed. Manubrium with one pair of dorsal longer setae. Dens with moderate granulation dorsally and with 6 setae, with a smooth triangular area ventrally devoid of secondary granulation. Mucro about half the length of dens, triangular, with two very short lamellae and granulation similar to dens, apex slightly curved (
Etymology
Known only from type locality. Province Estelí: Mesas de Moropotente,
More than 135 specimens were found in the samples of pitfall traps from two different pasture fields on August 23, 2007.The species is very abundant in most of the collecting traps.
Comparison of
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1.4 | 3 | 6 | 14–20 | 1.0 | 4 | mMm | - | + | 6 | None | |
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1.2 | 3 | 5 | 17 | 1.1 | 3 | ??? | + | + | 6 | None |
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0.5 | 3 | 6 | 6–7 | ? | 3 | mmm | - | - | 6 | 1 ac |
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0.8 | 1 | 5? | 10–13 | 1.8 | 3 | mmm | + | - | 6 | 1 cap |
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0.8 | 3 | 6? | 8 | 1.2 | 5 | mmm | + | - | 3 | 1 ac |
The number of vesicles of postantennal organ varies asymetrically from 14 to 20. The number of circumgenital setae on the male genital plate varies from 10 to 13 and that of eugenital setae from 4 + 4 to 6 + 6. Some of the adult specimens have macrosetae with blunt tips.
The material was given to us by Pilar Andrés, Centre de Recerca Ecologica i Aplicacions Forestals (CREAF), Campus de la Universitat Autónoma de Barcelona, Spain. Blanca Mejía Recamier prepared all the slides for the description of this species and Elihú Catalán inked the figures.