Scoterpes willreevesi, Shear, 2010

Shear, William A., 2010, 2385, Zootaxa 2385, pp. 1-62 : 59

Scoterpes willreevesi , n. sp.

Figs. 85, Map 6

Types: Male holotype and female paratype ( VMNH) from Cemetary Cave (Cemetary Pit), Rising Fawn , Dade Co. Georgia , collected 10 May 1999 by Will Reeves .

Etymology: Named for the collector, entomologist and speleobiologist Will Reeves.

Diagnosis: The complexly folded angiocoxites of this species are unlike those of any other.

Male from Cemetary Cave: Length, 9.5 mm, width 0.85 mm. Nonsexual characters as described for genus. Gonopods ( Fig. 85) with coxal setal groups narrowly separated. Mesal coxite branch flattened, irregularly toothed, acuminate; lateral branch complexly folded, with large lamina turned mesad posteriorly. Fimbriate branch of colpocoxite small, weak. Ninth legpair typical of genus.

Female from Cemetary Cave: Length, 10.0 mm, width 0.9 mm. Nonsexual characters as in male.

Distribution (Map 6): All specimens FSCA; all records supported by males. GEORGIA: Dade Co. Byers Cave , 1.5 mi SW Rising Fawn, 18 June 1967, J. Holsinger et al.; same locality, 9 August 1967, S. Peck. ALABAMA: DeKalb Co. Sequoyah Caverns, Valley Head, 9 August 1967, S. Peck, male.

Notes: Cemetary Cave, or Pit, is a large, complex cave system that can only be entered by means of a 150- foot vertical drop. The adjoining areas of DeKalb Co., Alabama, and Dade Co., Georgia, are also home to S. austrinus Loomis , and the species both occur in the Rising Fawn area in caves no more than 5 miles apart, but in narrowly separated karst windows. Reeves (in litt.) says “...Sequoia [sic] Caverns is a commercial cave in Alabama near Rising Fawn, Georgia. It is on the same piece of limestone as Cemetary Pit, Rustys Cave, and all the other Fox Mountain sites.” Cemetary Pit and other Fox Mountain caves are on a 332-acre preserve owned by the Southeastern Cave Conservancy. The property contains many other caves large and small, and these should be explored for new localites for S. willreevesi .

This species is probably, along with S. syntheticus , the most distinctive species of Scoterpes because of the large, complexly folded angiocoxites. It is nothing like the broadly sympatric S. austrinus . The specimens from Sequoyah Caverns and Byers Cave were labeled “latus” by Causey; this is an unpublished name.