Hypogastrura tethyca Ellis, 1976

Skarzynski, Dariusz, Kahrarian, Morteza, Piwnik, Agata & Zawisza, Marlena, 2017, Description of Hypogastruraellisi sp. n. with notes on H. tethyca Ellis and the trybomi group (Collembola, Hypogastruridae), ZooKeys 719, pp. 45-57 : 45

Hypogastrura tethyca Ellis, 1976 Figs 11-14

Type material.

Paratypes: Greece, Crete, leg. A.C. & W.N. Ellis (deposited at the Naturalis Biodiversity Center, Netherland): 2 females (21008, 21010), 2 males (21011, 21013), Knossos, loose loam, sparsely grown with grass and Oxalis pes-caprae L. at foot of a 4-m high cliff along road, 24.X.1972, 972.219; 3 females (21017, 21018, 21036), 3 males (21028, 21029, 21030), Knossos, collected manually under stones pieces of dead wood etc. 24.X.1972, 972.195; 1 female (21004), Iraklion, 25.X.1972, after heavy rains, loam, litter and rotting leaf bases under vigorous ruderal vegetation ( Ecballium elaterium (L.) Rich., 972.233; 1 male (21015), Marathos, 15 km W of Iraklion, 26.X.1972, litter under Pistacia lentiscus in phrygana on weak north slope, 972.209; 3 females (20978, 20979, 20980), 7 males (20983, 20984, 20985, 20986, 20987, 20988, 20989), Malia, litter of Quercus coccifera in well-developed phrygana, 29.X.1972, 972.211.

Other material.

Greece, Lesbos, leg. Ellis (deposited at the Naturalis Biodiversity Center, Netherland): 2 females (21069), 1 male (21070), Alifanta, 24.X.1973, 973219; 1 female (21075), Ayiásos, 16.XI.1973, 973334; 2 females (21072, 21073), 1 male (21074), Profitis Ilias, 13.X.1973, 973312; 1 female (21077), 1 male (21076), Agia Marina, 23.XI.1973, 973367; 1 female (21055), Mitilini, 19.X.1973, 973102. Azerbaijan, leg. Z.K.Rasulova (deposited at the Severtsov Institute of Ecology & Evolution, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow): 7 females, 3 males (other data unknown).

Note.

The description ( Ellis 1976) and redescription ( Babenko et al. 1994) of H. tethyca are highly informative; however, the examination of the types and other material allow us to add some more details. Hypogastrura tethyca has 10-18 granules between setae p1 on Abd. V, Ant. IV with three lateral and one dorsal long thin and curved blunt sensilla (sometimes 1-2 more in the dorsal group, longer and less curved, in arrangement as in H. ellisi sp. n., Fig. 4) and approximately ten short stiff sensilla truncate at the apex in the ventral file (Fig. 14), the postantennal organ 1.0-1.5 (usually 1.2) as long as the nearest ocellus, the labrum with delicate flat and hardly visible apical papilla (Figs 11-13), a maxillary outer lobe with two sublobal hairs, and large anal spines on high papillae (the ratio anal spine + basal papilla/inner edge of claws III 0.75-1.1).

Ellis (1976), looking for H. tethyca affinities, pointed out difficulties with its placement within the genus and compared it with a wide spectrum of species, including H. monticola Stach, 1946, H. aterrima , and also H. trybomi ( Schött, 1893). Then, Babenko et al. (1994), based on specimens from Azerbaijan, put this species into the trybomi group. Although this concept seems well justified, H. tethyca , having a labrum with delicate apical papillae and tibiotarsi with long and clavate tenent hair, occupies a rather isolated position within the group. Undoubtedly, further research is needed to establish its relationships. The characteristics of the trybomi group and a key to the known species of the group are given below. H. tethyca is also similar to H. ellisi sp. n. They differ in the characters mentioned above.