Lepidocyrtus bicoloris, Mateos, Eduardo, 2012

Mateos, Eduardo, 2012, The European Lepidocyrtus lanuginosus group (Collembola: Entomobryidae), definition and description of a new species from Spain, Zootaxa 3570, pp. 69-81 : 79

Lepidocyrtus bicoloris sp. nov.

Figs 3, 5– 26; Tabs 1–3

Type material. Holotype: male in one slide ( CRBA 10697), Serra Marina mountains, Cabrils municipality, Barcelona province, Spain (N 41.54661 E 2.36532), pine and oak litter, 28.xi. 2007, leg. E. Mateos (see Tabs 1 and 2, Loc 122). Paratypes: 6 specimens in slides and 16 specimens in alcohol, the same data as the holotype; 6 specimens in slides and 32 specimens in alcohol, same locality as the holotype, 05.v. 2007; 9 specimens in slides and 21 specimens in alcohol, Serra del Montseny mountains, Tagamanent municipality, Barcelona Province, Spain (N 41.75090 E 2.30553), herbs above ground (see Tabs 1 and 2, Loc 249). Holotype and one paratype slide from Loc 249 (specimen CRBA 10698) saved in the collection of the Centre de Recursos de Biodiversitat Animal, Faculty of Biology, University of Barcelona (http://www.crba.ub.edu); other specimens kept in the E. Mateos’ slides collection.

Etymology. The subspecies name refers to the body color pattern (body with two colors).

Description. Adult body length (without head and furca) 0.7 –1.0 mm. With dark blue pigment on the dorsal and ventral sides of th.II to abd.II (including ventral tube), ant.I–IV (with increasing colour intensity towards the distal part of each segment), and cx.I–III; densely black pigmented ocular areas ( Fig. 3). The foremost part of the eye-patches connected by a pigmented band.

All morphological and chaetotaxic characters match those explained for L. lanuginosus , with the following differences: Ratio antenna:cephalic diagonal 1.2–1.6. Labium chaetotaxy [M 1 *] M 2 R*EL 1 L 2; one out of 22 examined individuals with two M setae on one side of the labium. Interocular chaetotaxy with ciliated setae (s, t, p), and 1–3 scales. Abd.II seta ml present in three out of 22 examined individuals ( Fig. 25) (one specimen with seta ml present on one side of the body and absent on the other side). Abd.IV seta E 4 p ciliated macrochaeta in three out of 22 examined individuals, smooth mesochaeta on the other 19; ratio C 1 -B 5 /B 5 -B 6 as 1.3–1.7. Ventral tube with 7 + 7 ciliated setae on anterior side; 6 + 6 ciliated setae on posterior side; each lateral flap with a maximum of 6 ciliated setae and 2 smooth setae. Four out of 22 examined individuals have a fourth inner tooth at 83 % of the inner edge of the unguis, and unguiculus with a finely serrated outer margin ( Fig. 26). Ratio manubrium:dens:mucro as 16: 15: 1.

Ecology and distribution. Specimens were obtained from pine and oak litter and from herbaceous vegetation. They all have a gut content composed mainly of fungal hyphae and spores.

Discussion. Color pattern is usually a useful discriminating character in Lepidocyrtinae (even in Entomobryidae ). The "color pattern species" coined by Yoshii (1989) for tropical Entomobryoidea argues that in the absence of diagnostic morphological characters, differences in color pattern were sufficient to define valid species. The molecular analysis of Soto-Adames (2002) on Lepidocyrtus and Pseudosinella also demonstrated this point. The new species is very close to L. lanuginosus and L. cyaneus . Of this two species L. bicoloris sp. nov. can be differentiated by the body color pattern: blue pigment on th.II to abd.II in L. bicoloris , without pigment in L. lanuginosus , and dark blue pigmented in L. cyaneus . In addition, the new species has a size slightly smaller than the others, abd.IV seta Fe 4 is a smooth mesochaeta, and shows variability in the presence or absence of abd.II seta ml, the number of unguis teeth, and the empodial denticulation (see Table 3).