Alloschizidium labronicum 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
Alloschizidium
Alloschizidium labronicum

description: Alloschizidium labronicum n. sp.
(Figs 18-20, 21G)
urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act: 3B 200712 -4876-4ED3-BEA3-1607966B9900
TYPE MATERIAL. — Holotype. ♂, Ponte Maroccone, Antignano, 1.5 km S of Antignano, 43°28’47”N, 10°20’02”E, 20 m a.s.l., holm oak wood, under deeply enbedded stones, leg. S. Taiti, 29.III.1986 (MZUF 9677). Paratypes. 2 ♀, same data as holotype (MZUF 9677); 1 ♀, near Livorno, holm oak wood, leg. S. Zoia, 28.V.1980 (MZUF 9678).
DIAGNOSIS. — A blind, colourless species of Alloschizidium characterized by piliform dorsal scale-setae, cephalon with reduced postscutellar line, telson trapezoidal, as wide as long with truncate apex,
uropodal exopod as wide as long, male pleopod 1 exopod with broadly rounded medial margin.
ETYMOLOGY. — From the Latin name labronicus = inhabitant of Labro, cited in a letter by Marcus Tullius Cicero, and which refers to the Tuscan town of Leghorn (Livorno in Italian).
DESCRIPTION
Maximum length: ♂, 3 mm; ♀, 4 mm. Body colourless, strongly convex with vertical epimera, able to roll up into a perfect ball (Fig. 18A). Back smooth covered with piliform scale-setae (Fig. 18B). Cephalon (Fig. 18C, D) with triangular scutellum slightly depressed in the middle and distinctly separated from vertex but not protruding above it; frontal line continuing the scutellar upper margin; postscutellar line reduced; antennary lobes quadrangular, obliquely directed frontwards; eyes absent. Pereonite 1 (Fig. 18E) with posterior margin slightly concave; postero-lateral schisma with outer lobe rounded and distinctly protruding backwards; lateral margin slightly thickened. Pereonites 1-3 with small rounded ventral tooth. Telson (Fig. 18F) trapezoidal, almost as long as wide, with slightly concave sides and truncate apex. Antennula (Fig. 18G) of three articles, tuft of about five aesthetascs. Antenna (Fig. 18H) with flagellum as long as fifth article of peduncle; second flagellar article about three times as long as first and bearing 1 + 1 + 3 aesthetascs. Mandibles (Fig. 19A, B) with molar penicil consisting of many setae and 2 + 2 free penicils on the left and 1 + 2 on the right mandible. Maxillula (Fig. 19C) outer branch with 4+6 (5 slightly cleft) teeth, inner branch with two stout penicils. Maxilla (Fig. 19D) with bilobed and setose apex. Maxilliped (Fig. 19E) endite with two triangular terminal spines, one subterminal strong seta and triangular spine on medial margin. Pleopod 1 and 2 exopods with monospiracular covered lungs. Uropod (Fig. 19F) with exopod flattened, almost as long as wide; endopod longer than exopod.
Male
Pereopod 1 (Fig. 20A) carpus with two lines of strong setae with multipointed apices near sternal margin. Pereopod 7 (Fig. 20B) with no distinct sexual modifications, ischium with straight sternal margin. Pleopod 1 (Fig. 20C) exopod about twice as wide as long, with broadly rounded medial margin; endopod with apical part thickset, straight, and bearing a row of short setae. Pleopod 2 (Fig. 20D) exopod triangular with slightly concave outer margin bearing single seta; endopod narrow and distinctly longer than exopod. Pleopod 3-5 exopods as in Fig. 20E-G.
REMARKS
The genus Alloschizidium comprises 12 species with a Tyrrhenian distribution (Schmalfuss 2003; Taiti & Argano 2009). In having the dorsal surface covered with piliform scale-setae, the new species resembles A. sardoum (Arcangeli, 1933) from Sardinian caves, A. remyi (Vandel, 1944) from Corsica, A. eeae Argano & Utzeri, 1973 from Ponza Island, and A. cavernicolum Taiti & Ferrara, 1995 from a cave in southern Tuscany. It differs from A. sardoum and A. eeae in having shorter telson and uropodal exopods as wide as long instead of longer than wide; from A. sardoum, A. remyi and A. eeae in the male pleo- pod 1 exopod without posterior point; from A. remyi also in the absence of any trace of eyes (a single ocellum in A. remyi is distinctly visible, see Taiti & Ferrara 1996).
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 218-220, DOI: 10.5252/zoosystema2018v40a11, http://zenodo.org/record/3741502