Pseudoparonella Handschin, 1925

Zhang, Feng & Deharveng, Louis, 2015, A revision of Pseudoparonella, Plumachaetas, Parachaetoceras and Lawrenceana (Collembola: Paronellidae), with description of three new species from New Caledonia, Zootaxa 4058 (4), pp. 561-577 : 562

Genus Pseudoparonella Handschin, 1925

Type species. Paronella appendiculata Schött, 1917 .

Type locality. Malanda, North Queensland, Australia.

Diagnosis. Antennae 4-segmented, shorter or subequal to body; chaetae on Ant. I and II much shorter than segmental length. Eyes 8+8, G and H smaller ( Fig. 13 ). Prelabral and labral chaetae 4/5, 5, 4; prelabral ones ciliate. Subapical chaeta of maxillary outer lobe pointed. Labial chaetae MREL1L2, all ciliate. Mesonotum not humped. Dens with two large chaetae at distal tip. Dental spines and scale-like appendage absent. Mucro dorsally fused with dens and with 2‒4 teeth. Tergal chaetotaxy polymacrochaetotic. Scales brown, mostly pointed, coarsely striated, and present at least on Ant. I‒II, head, terga, and ventral side of manubrium and dens; scales on furcula narrower than those on body ( Figs 14‒19 ).

Remarks. The type species of Pseudoparonella was redescribed in detail based on lectotype and paralectotypes by Mitra (1992) and thus not reexamined here. The genus is closest to Plumachaetas in most characters except antennae and subapical chaeta of maxillary outer lobe. The antennae are shorter or subequal to the body in length with antennal chaetae unmodified in Pseudoparonella , but are much longer than body with some chaetae at least 1/2 as long as segment on Ant. I‒II in Plumachaetas. Subapical chaeta of maxillary outer lobe is pointed in the examined species of Pseudoparonella ( Table 1 ). Pseudoparonella also differs from Callyntrura and Dicranocentroides in the smaller mucro weakly separated from dens, 2‒4 teeth in the former, and the mucro usually with at least 5 teeth and sharply separated from dens in the latter two genera.

Figures

FIGURES 13 – 22. SEM photos of Pseudoparonella tanimbarica: 13, eyes; 14, scales on antennae; 15, scales on head; 16, scales on terga; 17, scales on manubrium; 18, scales on dens; 19, scales on leg; 20, spiny chaetae on trochanteral organ; 21, fore claw; 22, mucro.