Mixturatulla, Bernard, Ernest C., 2016

Bernard, Ernest C., 2016, Two new genera and five new species of Tullbergiidae (Collembola) from the southern Appalachian Mountains of North America, with redescription of Tullbergia clavata Mills, Zootaxa 4162 (3), pp. 451-478 : 461

Mixturatulla new genus

Diagnosis. Color white. Cuticle with distinct fields of granulation, posterior margins distinct from more anterior areas; granules of Abd. VI coalesced into two bands of thick, irregularly swollen tubercles. PAO with two rows of 25‒35 rod-like vesicles each, second row disrupted in last half by presence of two or three short, irregular rows of rounded vesicles. Labial palpus with papillae A and B thickened, tips rounded, C‒E pointed. Pseudocellus shape Type III (crescentic), formula 11/010/11111. Sense organ of Ant. III with two convergent sense clubs and two sense rods, ventrally with one sense club. Tibiotarsi with 12 setae. Posterior regions of some segments with distinct transverse rows of granules. Abd. VI without crescentiform ridges. Two anal spines.

Type and only species. Mixturatulla ozwini n. sp.

Etymology. The genus name is a combination of Latin mixtura (a mixing, mixture) and part of the genus name Tullbergia , in recognition of the unique combination of characters found in the type species.

Remarks. In the key of Dunger & Schlitt (2011) M. ozwini traces to couplet 29, but does not fit either of the alternatives as it lacks pseudocelli on Th. I and III. This arrangement is known elsewhere only in A. clavata n. comb. (see above) and Psammophorura miniclavata n. sp., but the three taxa otherwise differ in many respects. Mixturatulla n. gen. has the same size and general appearance as Mesaphorura spp. but possesses a much different PAO, has crescentic rather than stellate pseudocelli, and lacks crescentic ridges on Abd. VI. The labial palp is unusual in having papillae A and B stout and blunt at the tip, a character shared with Karlstejnia Rusek, 1974 and Multivesicula Rusek, 1982 ( Fjellberg 1999) . However, both of these genera have crescentic ridges on Abd. VI and stellate pseudocelli. The PAO of Multivesicula consists of a ring of vesicles enclosing several irregular rows of vesicles, thus having some resemblance to the outer part of the Mixturatulla PAO, but the latter genus has a long, more medial portion consisting of two distinct, parallel rows of vesicles.