Paraschizidium ferrarai Taiti & Montesanto 2018, n. sp.
Creators: name: Taiti, Stefano
name: Montesanto, Giuseppe
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2018
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Malacostraca
Isopoda
Armadillidiidae
Paraschizidium
Paraschizidium ferrarai

description: Paraschizidium ferrarai n. sp.
(Figs 12- 14, 21E)
urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act: 70FC4AC6-19FA-4234-AA6E-2E562594A3A1
Paraschizidium olearum – Taiti & Ferrara 1980: 285; 1989: 81.
TYPE MATERIAL. — Holotype. ♂, Isola di Gorgona, above Cala Scirocco, Prov. Livorno, 43°25’23”N, 9°53’59”E, under deeply enbed-
ded stones, leg. S. Taiti, S. Vanni and A. Nistri, 19.IV.1995 (MZUF 9674). Paratypes. 1♂, 1 ♀, same data as holotype (MZUF 9674); 1 ♀, Isola di Gorgona, Prov. Livorno, 43°25’51”N, 9°54’23”E, above harbour, pine wood under deeply enbedded stones, leg. S. Taiti and S. Vanni, 30.X-1.XI.1979 (MZUF 449); 2 ♂, same locality, leg. S. Taiti, S. Vanni and A. Nistri, 21.IV.1995 (MZUF 9675).
DIAGNOSIS. — A blind, colourless species of Paraschizidium characterized by claviform dorsal scale-setae, antennula of three articles, male pleopod 1endopod with bilobed apex.
ETYMOLOGY. — The new species is named after Dr Franco Ferrara (Florence) for his invaluable contribution on the taxonomy of Oniscidea.
DESCRIPTION
Maximum length: ♂, 2.3 mm; ♀, 2.8 mm. Body colourless, strongly convex, able to roll up into a perfect ball (Fig. 12A), dorsally covered with claviform scale-setae (Fig. 12B); one line of noduli laterales per side on pereonites, more or less at the same distance from lateral margin (Fig. 12A). Cephalon (Fig. 12 C-E) with a V-shaped scutellum clearly opened dorsally, antennary lobes narrow, quadrangular; eyes absent. Pereonite 1 (Fig. 12F) with posterior margin almost straight, postero-lateral corner slightly sinuous but with no schisma, ventrally with a small rounded tooth. Telson (Fig. 12G) subtriangular, wider than long, with slightly convex sides and broadly rounded apex. Antennula (Fig. 12H) of three articles, second article shortest, five aesthetascs at apex. Antenna (Fig. 12I) with fifth article of peduncle slightly longer than flagellum; second flagellar article about three times as long as first, with two rows of aesthetascs. Mandibles (Fig. 13A, B) with molar penicil semidichotomized and 1+ 3 free penicils on left and 1+ 1 on right mandible. Maxillula (Fig. 13C) outer branch with 4+ 5 (2 cleft) teeth, inner branch with two small stout penicils. Maxilla (Fig. 13D) with bilobed and setose apex. Maxilliped (Fig. 13E) endite with two triangular terminal spines, one subterminal strong seta and a triangular spine on medial corner. Pleopod 1 and 2 with monospiracular covered lungs. Uropod (Fig. 13F) with exopod flattened and wider than long, endopod longer than exopod.
Male
Pereopod 1 (Fig. 14A) carpus with some strong setae on sternal margin. Pereopod 7 (Fig. 14B) with no distinct sexual modifications, ischium with straight sternal margin. Pleopod 1 (Fig. 14C) exopod trapezoidal, much wider than long, with crenulate outer margin; endopod with bilobed apex, slightly bent outwards and bearing short setae near medial margin. Pleopod 2 (Fig. 14D) exopod triangular, with one seta on outer margin; endopod much longer than exopod.Pleopod 3-5 exopods as in Fig. 14 E-G.
REMARKS
At present, the genus Paraschizidium comprises four species: P. coeculum (Silvestri, 1897) widely distributed from Spain to Croatia and Hungary, P. hispanum Arcangeli, 1935 from Spain, P. roubali Frankenberger, 1940 from Czech Republic, which is most probably a junior synonym of P. coeculum (Manicastri & Taiti 1994), and P. esterelanum Juchault & Legrand, 1962 from France. Two more species from Greece (P. levithae Sfenthourakis, 1995 and P. polyvotisi Sfenthourakis, 1995) are presently included in the genus but they should belong to the genus Schizidium Verhoeff, 1901. In fact, Schmalfuss (2008) clearly stated that all the Greek species of Paraschizidium possessing a schisma on the pereonite 1 should be transferred to the genus Schizidium, even if he forgot to include those two species in the list of Schizidium species (S. Sfenthourakis pers. comm.). The new species is readily distinguished from P. coeculum and P. roubali in having claviform instead of piliform dorsal scale-setae; from P. hispanum in having the antennula of three instead of two articles, the male pereopod 7 ischium with straight instead of concave sternal margin, the male pleopod 1 endopod slightly, instead of distinctly, bent outwards. Paraschizidium ferrarai n. sp. is similar to P. esterelanum in having the antennula of three segments and the same shape of the uropodal exopod; it differs in the male pleopod 1 exopod trapezoidal instead of rectangular, with outer margin crenulate instead of straight, and in the endopod with distinctly bilobed apex. As pointed out by Manicastri &Taiti (1994) the populations reported by Vandel (1962) as P. olearum, or at least some of them, might belong to the new species P. ferrarai n. sp. (see also Séchet & Noël 2015 and Noël & Séchet 2017).
description: Published as part of Taiti, Stefano & Montesanto, Giuseppe, 2018, New species of subterranean and endogean terrestrial isopods (Crustacea, Oniscidea) from Tuscany (central Italy), pp. 197-226 in Zoosystema 40 (11) on pages 210-215, DOI: 10.5252/zoosystema2018v40a11, http://zenodo.org/record/3741502