Willemia zeppelini D'Haese & Thibaud, 2011, sp. nov.
Creators: name: D'Haese, Cyrille A.
name: Thibaud, Jean-Marc
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2011
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Entognatha
Collembola
Hypogastruridae
Willemia
Willemia zeppelini

description: Willemia zeppelini sp. nov.
Figs 1–5
Type material. Holotype (female) and 2 paratypes (females).
Type locality. Brazil, Joao Pessoa, Beach of Tambau, central region, Joao Pessoa, PB. 17.vi.2010.
Other localities. Beach of Camboinha 3, Cabedelo, PB. 19.vi.2010; 3 specimens, 1 male, 2 females (MNHN- EA010008 to MNHN-EA010010).
Description. Body length: holotype 300 µm (MNHN-EA010005), paratypes 270–330 µm (MNHN-EA010006 to MNHN-EA010007). Color in alcohol white, body with short acuminate ordinary chaetae, some slightly longer. Sensory chaetae a little thicker and longer than ordinary chaetae. Tegumental granulation fine and regular.
Antennae somewhat shorter than head’s diagonal (40 µm; and 50 µm respectively). Ant. I and Ant. II with 7 and 11 chaetae respectively (Fig. 2). Ant. III and IV only hardly separated. Sensorial organ of Ant. III consisting of a large integumentary fold hiding 2 internal s-microchatae, 2 long guard chaetae, 2 long sensory rods with a dark axis and lighter expansions on both sides, and one ventral microsensillum (Fig. 1). Ant. IV with a large globular apical bulb, microsensillum and subapical organite present. Ant. IV s-chaeta comprising of S 2/ d and S 9/ e 1 absent or not differentiated form ordinary chaetae, S 1/ i 1 and S 8/ e 2 subcylindrical or hardly differentiated from ordinary chaetae, and S 4/ i 2 and S 7/ e 3 enlarged with the shape of a slightly flattened pear. Some variation is observed with S 1, S 8, S 4 and S 7 being in a continuum from subcylindrical hardly differentiated from ordinary chaetae to flattened pear-shaped (Figs 1–2).
Postantennal organ with 4 to 5 tubercles (Fig. 3), no eyes. Chaetae a 0 and c 1 absent on the head (Fig. 3). Prelabrum/labrum with 2/2,5,4 chaetae. Three pairs of labial chaetae.
Dorsal body chaetotaxy presented in Fig. 3. The specimens observed present some variation and asymmetries. Chaetae s per half tergum formula: 22/11111 generally, in m 7 and p 4 position on thorax II and III terga, in p 4 position on abdominal terga I to IV and p 2 position on Abd. V i.e. chaeta p 2 absent; some specimens have p 2 present (i.e. chaeta s in p 3 position). Thorax II and III with reduced chaetotaxy: a 1, a 2 or m 3 seem to be missing (Fig. 3). Abd. II and III with a 2, but without m -row. Abdomen IV without m1, m2, m3, or m’3 or p 5. No anal spine.
Ventral tube with 4 + 4 chaetae. Ventral abdominal chaetotaxy as in Fig. 4. Furcula absent. Female genital plate with 2 eugenital chaetae; male genital plate with 8 eugenital chaetae.
Anal valves with one hr chaeta and without e and z chaetae (Fig. 4).
Tibiotarsal chaetotaxy I, II and III with 12 chaetae each. Unguis with a small empodial appendage and without teeth (Fig. 5).
Derivatio nominis. The new species is cordially dedicated to the brazilian collembologist Professor Douglas Zeppelini from Universidade Estadual da Paraiba in Joao Pessoa, who participated to the collection of this new species.
Distribution. Phylogenetically, W. zeppelini fits among central american/neotropical species (W. subbulbosa, persimilis -group and W. brevispina) which makes a lot of sense biogeographically. The only other Willemia species recorded from Brazil is W. brevispina Hüther, 1962, found in littoral sand near Rio coast (Thibaud & Palacios-Vargas 1999) and it is one of the closest to the new W. zeppelini on the phylogeny (Fig. 6).
description: Published as part of D'Haese, Cyrille A. & Thibaud, Jean-Marc, 2011, Description and phylogenetic position of a new Willemia species (Collembola: Hypogastruridae) from the littoral coast of Brazil, pp. 33-40 in Zootaxa 2932 on page 34, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.202784