Ceratophysella caucasica Martynova, 1971

Babenko, Anatoly & Antipova, Maria, 2025, Two new species of the springtail genus Ceratophysella Börner, 1932 from the Caucasus (Collembola: Hypogastruridae), Zootaxa 5725 (3), pp. 391-408 : 405

Ceratophysella caucasica Martynova, 1971

Material. 4 females, and 53 juveniles, ~120 ind. in ethanol, Russia, Northern Caucasus , Kabardino-Balkarian Republic , Adylsu River valley, Kashkatash glacier foreland, 43.217998°N, 42.685711°E, 2300 m alt., pine forests, numerous on mushrooms, 16.07– 3.08.2023, M. Antipova & A. Babenko leg ; 6 females, and 43 juveniles, ~300 ind. in ethanol Karachay-Cherkess Republic , Dombai, 43.301551°N, 41.555444°E, ~ 2000 m alt., willow-birch forests, mushrooms, 15– 25.07.2024, M. Antipova leg.

Remarks. The species possesses a noticeable feature, a spherical integumentary outgrowth on Abd. V, which relates it to C. stercoraria ( Stach, 1963) from Central Asia. It is no coincidence that specimens from the vicinity of Sukhumi ( Abkhazia) were initially identified by Martynova (1964) as C. stercoraria ( Stach, 1963) . Subsequently, based on this same material, it was described as C. caucasica ( Martynova, 1971) . According to Babenko et al. (1994), mixed populations of these two species were recorded from the Caucasus.

DNA material. GenBank under accession numbers PX505038, PX505039.