Porcellionides, Miers, 1877

Taiti, Stefano & Rossano, Claudia, 2015, Terrestrial isopods from the Oued Laou basin, north-eastern Morocco (Crustacea: Oniscidea), with descriptions of two new genera and seven new species, Journal of Natural History 49 (33), pp. 2067-2138 : 2096

Porcellionides sp.

( Figures 16 and 17 )

Material examined

1 ♀, St. 4, dune under stones, leg. S. Taiti and C. Rossano, 1 May 2004 ( MZUF 9502 ) ; 1 ♂, St. 6, near well and wheat field, leg. S. Taiti and C. Rossano, 26 April 2004 ( MZUF 9503 ) .

Remarks

These specimens certainly belong to the genus and subgenus Porcellionides , but they do not seem to belong to any of the species of Porcellionides recorded from Morocco or the Iberian Peninsula. This species is morphologically close to P. pruinosus from which it differs in the more granulated dorsum and shape of the male pleopod 2 with exopod having a triangular posterior lobe and endopod tip slightly bent inwards. Since only two specimens were examined, we illustrate the main characters of the species ( Figures 16 and 17 ) but we prefer not to identify the species until a more abundant material can be analysed.

Figures

Figure 16. Porcellionides sp., ♀ from St. 4: (A) adult specimen, dorsal view; (B) dorsal scaleseta; (C) cephalon, dorsal view; (D) cephalon, frontal view; (E) pleonites 4, 5, telson and uropods; (F) antenna. ♂ from St. 6: (G) pereopod 1.

Figure 17. Porcellionides sp., ♂ from St. 6: (A) pereopod 7; (B) genital papilla and pleopod 1; (C) pleopod 2; (D) pleopod 3 exopod; (E) pleopod 4 exopod; (F) pleopod 5 exopod.