Plutomurus danialensis Barjadze, Kovac & Mehrafrooz Mayvan 2024, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Barjadze, Shalva
name: Mayvan, Mahmood Mehrafrooz
name: Parimuchová, Andrea
name: Maghradze, Eter
name: Kováč, Ľubomír
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2024
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Collembola
Entomobryomorpha
Tomoceridae
Plutomurus
Plutomurus danialensis

description: Plutomurus danialensis Barjadze, Kováč & Mehrafrooz Mayvan sp. nov.
(Figs 5, 18–29)
Type locality. Iran, Mazandaran Province, Abbas Abad County, close to the Danial Village, Danial Cave, 203 m a.s.l.
Type material. Holotype: Female on slide, dark zone of the main horizontal corridor with permanent subterranean stream, hand collecting, 18.x.2023, leg. M. Mehrafrooz Mayvan, code IRADAN 20231018-101 (IZISU); Paratypes: 10 specimens on separate slides with the same data as holotype: 5 specimens on separate slides with code IRADAN 20231018-102, 104, 105, 107, 109 (IZISU); 3 specimens on separate slides with code 20231018- 103, 106, 108 (UPJŠ); 2 specimens on separate slides with code IRADAN 20231018-110, 111 (ZMFUM).
Description. Body length 1.80–3.48 mm (Fig. 5).
Colour. Body grey coloured when alive.
Scale distribution. Scales are present dorsally on Ant. I–II, head, Th. and Abd., all leg segments, both sides of ventral tube and ventral side of furca.
Head. Ratio of antennal length: head length as 3.35–4.81. Ant. III–IV annulated without scales. Eye patch with 6 well developed eyes (Fig. 26). Head dorsally with 1 unpaired (A 0), and 7 paired Mc: 2 anterior (A 2, A 3), 2 interocular (S 2, S 4) and 3 postocular (Pa 3, Pa 4, Pa 5) distributed as in Fig. 26. Posterior margin of head with a row of equal mesochaetae. Prelabral and labral chaetae smooth: prelabral chaetae 4 (2+2) (Fig. 18); labrum with 554 papillate chaetae as typical for genus.
Body chaetotaxy. Dorsal bothriotrichal formula as 2,1/0,0,1,2,0 (Figs 27–28). Dorsal Mc formula 5,2/3,3,4,5,2– 3 (Figs 27–28). Thoracic macrochaetotaxy as in Fig. 27. Th. II with 3 anterior (m 3, m 4, m 5) and 2 posterior (p 3, p 5) Mc; Th. III with 2 posterior (p 3, p 4) Mc. Abdominal macrochaetotaxy as in Fig. 28: Abd. I–II each with 3 posterior (m 2, m 3, m 4) long Mc respectively; Abd. III with 4 long Mc: 2 anterior (m 2, m 6) and 2 posterior (p 1, p 6) and one short Mc (p 7) as typical for genus; Abd. IV with 5 posterior Mc: 2 long (C 6, E 3) and 3 short Mc (A 6, D 3, T 7) (Fig. 28); Abd. V with 2–3 posterior (p 2, p 4 or p 2, p 3, p 4) long Mc (Fig. 28). For macrochaetal and socket proportions see Table 1.
Legs. Hind legs with well–developed trochanteral (9–26 chaetae) and femoral (10–27 chaetae) organs (Fig. 19), with several elongated chaetae. Posterior side of tibiotarsus III with 2 outstanding inner, apical and basal spine–like chaetae (arrows in Fig. 25) with tibiotarsal spine formula as 002.Apical spine–like chaeta on tibiotarsus III is always shorter and wider than basal spine-like chaeta. Ratio of apical spine–like chaeta: basal spine–like chaeta as 0.46– 0.59. Tenent hair clavate (Figs 20, 29). Ratio of claw III: Empodium III: tenent hair III as 1.76–2.60: 1.00–1.46: 1. Inner edge of claw on all legs with one characteristically minute proximal unpaired tooth (as a in Figs 20, 29) and 2–4 distal unpaired teeth, 3–5 in total (as b, c in Fig. 20; as b, c, d in Fig. 29). Claw with long pseudonychia (Fig. 20). Ratio of pseudonychium III: claw III length internally as 0.39–0.56: 1. Empodium lanceolate, tapered, with 2 internal lamellae bearing 0–3 teeth (Figs 20, 29).
Ventral tube. It has numerous chaetae: 9–30 anterior, 23–34 posterior and 20–30 lateral smooth chaetae respectively (Fig. 22). Tenaculum. Rami with 4 + 4 teeth, corpus with 1 smooth chaeta (Fig. 21).
Furca. Ratio manubrium: dens: mucro as 4.35–5.94: 6.27–10: 1. Outer margin of basal segment of dens with 3–5 apically acuminate macrochaetae (Fig. 24). Inner edge of dens with well differentiated spines (Fig. 24): Spines on basal segment of dens with 1 or 2 large spines apically; Spines on apical segment of dens forming a single row extending maximum 1 / 3 or 1 / 2 of length of apical segment of dens; proximal edge of apical segment of dens always with small spines and intercalated between long spines, terminal one is always the largest long spine in a row (Fig. 24). Dental formula is variable: 3–10 I–II /1–7 I 1–3 I(II) 0–3 0–I 0–4 0–I 0–2 0–I 0–2 0–I 0–2 0–I (Arabic numbers represent small spines; Roman numerals in bold and Italics represent large spines, on basal/apical segments of dens) (Fig. 24). Mucro with 2 basal, 0 intermediate and 2 distal teeth (202 formula) (Fig. 23). Measurements of some morphological characters are given in Table 1.
Variation. Variable characters are given in Table 2.
Discussion. Differential characters with the similar species are provided in Discussion section in the previous species description.
Etymology. The specific name originates from the type locality, the Danial Cave in northern Iran.
Ecology. It is probably a troglophilous species, considering presence of pigmented body and 6+6 eyes. It lives in dark zone of the cave.
Distribution. This species is known only from the single cave (type locality).
description: Published as part of Barjadze, Shalva, Mayvan, Mahmood Mehrafrooz, Parimuchová, Andrea, Maghradze, Eter & Kováč, Ľubomír, 2024, Two new species of Plutomurus Yosii (Collembola: Tomoceridae) from Georgia and Iran, pp. 559-572 in Zootaxa 5463 (4) on pages 566-569, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5463.4.6, http://zenodo.org/record/11612390