Homidia acutus sp. nov.

Figs 2-5, 6-13, 14-20, 21-29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34-40

Type material.

Holotype. 1♀ on slide, China, Jiangxi Province, Pingxiang City, Luxi County, Gate of Wugong Mountain, 27°29'27"N, 114°07'33"E, 393 m asl, sample number 1229, collected by Y-T Ma, 7-XI-2020, deposited in NTU. Paratypes. 3♀ on slides, same data as holotype.

Descriptions.

Size. Body length up to 2.05 mm.

Colouration. Ground colour pale white to pale yellow. Eye patches dark blue. Brown to blue-violet pigment present on whole dorsal body, antennae, legs, ventral tube, and manubrium. Some unpigmented irregular stripes or spots present on dorsal side of body (Figs 2-5).

Head. Antenna 0.46-0.58 × body length; antennal segment ratio I: II: III: IV = 1: 1.35-1.67: 1.20-1.33: 1.88-1.93. Apical bulb of Ant. IV bilobed (Fig. 6). Ant. III organ with two rod-like chaetae (Fig. 7). Ant. II with three distal rod-like chaetae (Fig. 8). Eyes 8 + 8, G and H smaller than others; interocular chaetae with p, r, and t. Dorsal cephalic chaetotaxy with three antennal (A), three ocellar (O) and five sutural (S) mac (Fig. 9). Labral chaetae as 4/5, 5, 4, all smooth; labral papillae absent (Fig. 10). Basal chaeta of maxillary outer lobe thin, subequal to apical one; sublobal plate with three smooth chaeta-like processes (Fig. 11). Lateral process (l.p.) of labial papilla E differentiated, as thick as normal chaeta, with tip almost reaching apex of papilla E (Fig. 12). Chaetal formula of labial base as MRel1L2, chaetae e and l1 smooth, others ciliate, M of one side smooth in one individual, R/M as 0.45-0.60 (Fig. 13).

Thorax. Th. II with four medio-medial (m1, m2, m2i, m2i2), three medio-sublateral (m4, m4i, m4p), 35-38 posterior mac, one ms and two sens (ms antero-internal to sens). Th. III with 40-49 mac and two sens (Fig. 14). Pseudopores on coxae not clearly seen; coxal macrochaetal formula as 4/4+1, 3/4+2 (Figs 15-17). Trochanteral organ with 40 smooth chaetae (Fig. 18). All tenent hairs pointed and shorter than inner edge of unguis. Unguis with three inner teeth, basal pair located at 0.39-0.42 distance from base of inner edge of unguis, distal unpaired tooth at 0.64-0.70 distance from base; unguiculus lanceolate, outer edge slightly serrate (Figs 19 - 31).

Abdomen. Range of Abd. IV length as 5.00-7.50 × as dorsal axial length of Abd. III. Abd. I with 11 or 12 (a1a, a1-3, a5, m2-4, m2i, m4i, m4p, a1i sometimes present) mac, ms antero-external to sens. Abd. II with six (a2, a3, m3, m3e, m3ea, m3ep) central, one (m5) lateral mac and two sens. Abd. III with two (a2, m3) central and four (am6, pm6, m7a, p6) lateral mac, one ms and two sens (Fig. 32). Abd. IV with two normal sens and approximately half length of elongate sens; anteriorly with six mac arranged in irregular transverse row, posteriorly with five central mac (A5, A6, B5, B6, Ae7), laterally with 12 or 13 mac (Fig. 33). Abd. V with three sens, middle one posterior to m3 (Fig. 34). Anterior face of ventral tube with 27-32 ciliate chaetae, 3+3 of them as mac, line connecting proximal (Pr) and external-distal (Ed) mac oblique to median furrow (Fig. 35); posterior face with six distal smooth and numerous ciliate chaetae; lateral flap with seven smooth and 10-15 ciliate chaetae (Fig. 36). Manubrial plate dorsally with 13-15 ciliate chaetae and three pseudopores (Fig. 37); ventrally with 32-38 ciliate chaetae on each side (Fig. 38). Dens with 32-59 smooth inner spines (Fig. 39). Mucro bidentate with subapical tooth larger than apical one; tip of basal spine reaching apex of subapical tooth; distal smooth section of dens almost equal to mucro in length (Fig. 40).

Ecology.

In the leaves litter of Phyllostachys edulis .

The name of the species is derived from the Latin acutus = pointed, which refers to the tip of tenent hairs.

Remarks.

The new species is characterised by pointed tip of tenent hairs and this character can be used to distinguish it from all known species of Homidia . It is similar to H. zhangi Pan & Shi, 2012 in colour pattern and labium, but there are some differences between them, such as tenent hairs, posterior chaetotaxy of Abd. IV, and other characters. The detailed character comparisons are listed in Table 2.