Superodontella eleonorae Giuga & Jordana & Baquero 2023, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Giuga, Luca
name: Jordana, Rafael
name: Baquero, Enrique
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2023
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Collembola
Poduromorpha
Odontellidae
Superodontella
Superodontella eleonorae

description: Superodontella eleonorae Giuga & Jordana sp. nov.
Figs 1–3, Tables 1–3
Type locality. Northeastern Sicily, Messina Province, Caronia, Mt. Pelato; 37.894444 N, 14.564167E, 1560m a.s.l.
Type material. Holotype: Male on slide (# NEBRODI_FAGGETA_06- II), Mt. Pelato, Caronia, Messina Province, Sicily, beech forest on soil, 23.VI.2021, leg. T. La Mantia. Paratypes: four specimens on slide (# 06-I male, # 06- III male, # 06- IV male, # 06- V male), same data as holotype. Holotype and four paratypes deposited in MZNA.
Other material. five juveniles on slide (# 06- VI, # 06-VII, #06-VIII, #06-IX, # 21- II), same data and locality as type material and deposited at MZNA.
Diagnosis. Habitus typical for the genus Superodontella Stach 1949. 5 +5 eyes present. Ant IV with eight dorsal and two ventral subcylindrical curved sensilla (S-chaetae). Head with two c chaetae (c 2, c 3) and p row with three or four chaetae. Buccal cone rather short. Labium (per half) with two small papillate chaetae and six ordinary chaetae: F as Mc, G as mes, D, E, c and e as mic. Perilabial area with 2+2 subequal a-chaetae (a 2, a 3). Furca well developed with five identical chaetae on each dens. Each anal valve with three hr-chaeate, of which two laterals are bifid. Tita I, II, and III with 17, 17 and 17 chaetae, respectively. Empodial appendage absent. Anal spines absent.
Description. Body length up to 1.4 mm, including head (mean 1.19 mm, n = 5 adults); holotype length 1.2 mm. Dimensions in Table 1. Colour in alcohol grey, ocular area blue-black. Body integument strongly granulated. The granulated area on head as in Figure 1A and Figure 3D, Abd tergum V granulation as in Figure 3E. Ant I, II and III with 6, 10 and 12 ordinary chaetae, respectively. Sensory organ of Ant III with two small rounded internal sensory rods (S 2 and S 3), two long bent external sensilla (S 1 and S 4), and with ventral S 5 microsensillum (Figs 1D, 1E); Ant IV dorso-distally with small ovoid organite (or); microsensillum (ms) absent; eigth dorsal subcylindrical bent sensilla S 0, S 1, S 2, S 4, S 6, S 7, S 8 and S 9 rather short, subequal; two ventral sensilla straight and rather long subequal; S 3 long and slender and tree more long sensilla-like macrochaetae; ten long, slender and pointed chaetae, two more (including dorsal chaeta i) short chaetae, and 6−8 ventral trumped-chaetae. Apical exertile vesicle absent. No eversible sac between Ant III and IV (Fig. 1D). Ocelli 5 +5. PAO as long as ocellus B, with four or five lobes (Figs 1B, 3A–B). Buccal cone rather short. Labium (per half) with two smalls apical papillate chaetae and six ordinary chaetae: F as Mc, G as mes; D, E, c and e as mic (Figs 1C, 3C). Perilabial area with 2 +2 subequal chaetae a (a 2–3), 3 +3 chaetae m (m 1–3) and 2 +2 chaetae p (p 1–2) (Figs 1C, 3C).
Dorsal chaetotaxy as in Fig. 2A and Table 2. Ordinary chaetae subequal, smooth and pointed on all terga. Formula of sensory chaetae s per half: 022/11111. ‘ms’ present on Th II and III. Head without chaeta a 0 and with chaetae c 2 and c 3. Row p with three to four chaetae. Th I with 4 +4 chaetae; Th II with 10–11 +10–11 chaetae (p 1 absent in one specimen); Th III with 12 +12 chaetae; Abd I – III with 6 +6 chaetae between p 5s, Abd IV with 7–8 +7–8 chaetae (a 4 present or absent) between p 5s chaetae; AbdV with 4+ 4 chaetae between p 3s chaetae. Without anal spines.
Ventral chaetotaxy. Th I−III without chaetae. Ventral tube with 3+ 3 chaetae. Abd I without chaetae, Abd II with 3 +3 chaetae, Abd III with 5+ 5 chaetae. Furca well developed with five identical chaetae on each dens (Fig. 2B). Manubrium (posterior side) with 8 +8 chaetae. Mucro typical for the genus, ratio mucro/dens as 0,6. Tenaculum with 3 +3 teeth. Each anal valve with three hr-chaetae of which the two external ones are bifid (Figs 2D–E); the last character observed only in adults specimens.
Tibiotarsi I, II and III with 17, 17 and 17 pointed chaetae (10 on distal whorl and seven on proximal one). Femora I, II and III with 9–10 chaetae, trochanters I, II and III with 4–5 chaetae, coxae I, II and III with three, six and six chaetae, respectively, subcoxae I, II and III with 1–2 chaetae. Legs without spine-like chaetae. Claws with a basal inner tooth and a pair of lateral teeth (Fig. 2C). Empodial appendage absent.
Ecology and distribution. All specimens were obtained in the same locality, in beech forest (Fagus sylvatica L.) soil at Mt. Pelato, Nebrodi Mountains. According to the available data of presence, S. eleonorae sp. nov. occurs with a low frequency.
Etymology. The species is lovely dedicated to the marine biologist Dr Eleonora Curcuraci.
Discussion. The new species is related to S. aspinata Deharveng & Izarra, 1979 from France, S. conglobata Arbea & Jordana, 1991 from Spain, and S. euro Weiner & Stomp, 2003 from Luxembourg. These four species have five subequal chaetae on dens and lack anal spines. All them differ in the presence or absence of bifid hr−chaetae on anal valves, presence or absence of capitated chaetae on Abd VI, number and position of chaetae on labium, number of tibiotarsal chaetae and the sensillar chaetotaxy of Ant IV.
The new species is also related to S. arvensis (Paclt, 1961) from Slovakia and S. scabra (Stach, 1946) from Austria which are insufficiently described; S. arvensis differs in the number of sensilla on Ant IV (10 in the new species, five in S. arvensis), S. scabra differs in the number of sensilla on Ant IV (10 in the new species, eight in S. scabra), number and shape of tenant hairs.
Main differences between S. eleonorae sp. nov. and these species are summarized in Table3.
description: Published as part of Giuga, Luca, Jordana, Rafael & Baquero, Enrique, 2023, Three new species of Collembola from Sicily with first record of the genus Superodontella Stach, 1949 from Italy, pp. 559-576 in Zootaxa 5249 (5) on pages 560-564, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5249.5.3, http://zenodo.org/record/7701301