Eluma praticola Taiti & Rossano 2015, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Taiti, Stefano
name: Rossano, Claudia
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2015
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Malacostraca
Isopoda
Armadillidiidae
Eluma
Eluma praticola

description: Eluma praticola sp. nov.
(Figures 34–36)
Material examined
Holotype: ♂, St. 25, under stones in meadow, leg. S. Taiti, 30 April 2004 (MZUF 9568). Paratypes: 9 ♂♂, 19 ♀♀, same data as holotype (MZUF 9568).
Description
Maximum length: ♂, 5.5 mm; ovigerous ♀, 7 mm. Body very convex, able to roll up into a ball, euspheric type (Figure 34A). Colour brown with paler epimera of pereonites 2–7. Dorsal surface without ornamentation and with numerous round pits and tiny pointed scale-setae (Figure 35A); one line of noduli laterales per side far from the lateral margin of pereonites 1–6, two noduli laterales per side on pereonite 7 (Figure 34D); no visible gland pores. Cephalon (Figure 34B, C) with a wide triangular scutellum distinctly separated from and not bent over vertex; no postscutellar line; antennary lobes quadrangular, directed frontwards; eye consisting of a single large ocellus. Pereonite 1 (Figures 34B, 35B) with a flattened lateral margin and a schisma on posterior corners; inner lobe of schisma rounded, more protruding backwards than the outer one; a small triangular lobe on ventral surface; posterior margin slightly sinuous at sides. Pereonite 2 (Figure 35B) with rounded epimera, a small triangular ventral lobe and straight posterior margin. Pereonite 3 with rounded epimera and straight posterior margin; pereonites 4–7 with quadrangular epimera and straight posterior margins. Pleonites 3–5 with rectangular epimera, slightly divergent. Telson (Figure 34E) triangular, almost 1.5 as wide as long, with straight sides and broadly rounded apex. Antennule (Figure 35C) of three articles, second article much shorter than first and third, third article with a tuft of superimposed aesthetascs subapically. Antenna (Figure 35D) short and stout with flagellum slightly shorter than fifth article of peduncle, second flagellar article almost three times longer than first and bearing two rows of aesthetascs. Mandibles (Figure 35E, F) with semidichotomized molar penicil and four free penicils; right mandible with one penicil and left mandible with two penicils on the hairy lobe. Maxillule (Figure 35G) outer lobe with 4 + 6 (5 cleft) teeth; inner lobe with two subequal penicils and a small triangular distal point. Maxilla (Figure 35H) apically setose, with quadrangular inner lobe, much smaller than rounded outer lobe. Maxilliped (Figure 35I) with quadrangular endite bearing three short triangular setae on distal margin and a longer subapical seta near the inner corner; basal article of palp with two long setae. Uropod (Figures 34E, 36A) flattened; exopod about twice as wide as long, with concave distal margin; endopod distinctly more protruding backwards compared with exopod.
Male: Pereopod 1 (Figure 36B) with a line of pointed setae on sternal margin of carpus and, to a lesser extent, merus. Pereopod 7 (Figure 34F, G) ischium distally with a ridge on caudal surface, sternal margin slightly concave with numerous long setae; merus with no ridges or lobes, sternal margin slightly convex with some long setae. Pleopod 1 (Figure 36C) exopod with a short, rounded medial lobe; endopod with distal part pointed and bent outwards. Pleopod 2 (Figure 36D) exopod triangular and slightly shorter than endopod. Pleopod 3–5 exopods as in Figure 36E–G.
Etymology
From the Latin pratum = meadow + stem of colere = to live. The name refers to the habitat where the specimens have been collected.
Remarks
Up to date the genus Eluma included only two species, the widespread E. caelata and E. tuberculata Cruz, 1991 from Fatima, Portugal. The new species is similar to E. caelata from which it differs in smaller size (maximum length in ovigerous females 7 mm vs 16 mm), the dorsal surface with shorter and less numerous scale-setae (compare Figure 34A–E and Figure 32A–D), shorter uropodal exopod (compare Figures 34E and Figure 32C), male pereopod 7 without a basal triangular lobe on merus and less sharp ridge on the caudal surface of the ischium (compare Figure 34F, G and Figure 32E–G), and pleopod 1 exopod with a shorter and round medial lobe (compare Figure 36C and Figure 33C).
Eluma praticola is readily distinguishable from E. tuberculata in the dorsal surface without ornamentation and lateral margin of pereonite 1 not grooved. No comparison is possible with the male characters since E. tubercolata was described on female specimens (Cruz 1991).
description: Published as part of 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, pp. 2067-2138 in Journal of Natural History 49 (33) on pages 2122-2129, DOI: 10.1080/00222933.2015.1009512, http://zenodo.org/record/3999869