Ptenothrix atra, (Linnaeus, 1758)

Babenko, Anatoly, Stebaeva, Sophya & Turnbull, Matthew S., 2019, An updated checklist of Canadian and Alaskan Collembola, Zootaxa 4592 (1), pp. 1-125 : 104-105

P. atra ( Linnaeus, 1758)

– Podura atra Linnaeus, 1758: 608

– Papirius unicolor Harvey, 1893: 65

– Ptenothrix atra apigmentata Stach, 1966: 217

BC Spencer 1948; Skidmore 1995; Cannings 2010

MB Skidmore 1995

ON James 1933; Maynard 1951; Scott 1965a all as unicolor ; Christiansen & Bellinger 1981, 1998; Skidmore 1995

QC Marshall 1964, 1967 as unicolor ; Christiansen & Bellinger 1981, 1998; Skidmore 1995; Therrien et al. 1999, 1999a; Chagnon et al. 2000, 2000a

NS Stach 1966 as atra apigmentata; Christiansen & Bellinger 1981, 1998; Skidmore 1995

NF Puvanendran et al. 1997

Remarks: Our attribution of these records to P. atra is based on Christiansen & Bellinger’s opinion (1981, p. 1231): “We are unable to find any clear morphological distinction between descriptions and figures of P. atra and the Nearctic form, which has almost universally been determined as unicolor . This is clearly the form described by Stach as atra apigmentata ”. Nevertheless, according to Bretfeld (1999, p. 158), “the North American specimens may represent a separate species ( unicolor Harvey, 1893 …) since Ant II has 7 long spines in the Palaearctic species but only 4 in the Nearctic…; more differences may be discovered in a re-examination”. In accordance with the latter remarks, P. atra and P. unicolor (= P. atra apigmentata ) are considered to be separate taxa on www. collembola .org.

General distribution: Holarctic.