Moserius gruberae Taiti & Montesanto 2018, n. sp.
Creators: name: Taiti, Stefano
name: Montesanto, Giuseppe
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2018
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Malacostraca
Isopoda
Trichoniscidae
Moserius
Moserius gruberae

description: Moserius gruberae n. sp.
(Figs 4-6, 21B)
urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act: E737A91A-335D-4E97-BF61-52D2DB4F25DD
TYPE MATERIAL. — Holotype. ♂, Monte Pisano, Grotta del Cane di Uliveto, 137 T/PI, 43°42’09”N, 10°31’14”E, Caprona, Uliveto Terme, Prov. Pisa, leg. S. Taiti, G. A. Gruber and P. Maestrini, 3.II.2007 (MZUF 9667). Paratypes. 21 ♂, 19 ♀, same data as holotype (MZUF 9667); 2 ♂, 2 ♀, same data (MNHN-IU- 2017-1439); 11♂, 13 ♀, Monte Pisano, Grotta dello Strinato, 79 T/PI, 43°42’03”N, 10°31’05”E, Uliveto Terme, Vicopisano, Prov. Pisa, leg. S. Taiti and G. A. Gruber, 3.II.2007 (MZUF 9668).
DIAGNOSIS. — A species of Moserius characterized by the male pleopod 1 endopod with the second article having parallel sides, distally with sinuous outer margin and rounded apex, and the male pleopod 2 endopod with apical part bent outwards.
ETYMOLOGY. — The new species in named after Dr Gertrud Anna Gruber, Bolzano, for her invaluable help in collecting the specimens.
DESCRIPTION
Maximum length: ♂, 3.3 mm; ♀, 3.5 mm. Body colourless, ovoidal, outline not interrupted between pereon and pleon (Fig. 4A). Dorsum bearing ribs and tubercles (Fig. 4 A-C): cephalon with three small tubercles on profrons, vertex with one large central tubercle with 3 +3 rounded tips, and 3 +3 rounded tubercles near rear margin; pereonite 1 with 4+4 longitudinal ribs; pereonites 2-6 with 3+3 longitudinal ribs; pereonite 7 with 2+ 2 ribs; pleonite 3 with two large paramedian tubercles. Cephalon (Fig. 4B, C) with short, subquadrangular frontal lateral lobes, directed outwards and not protruding compared with median lobe. Eyes absent. Pereonites 5-7 with epimera slightly pointing backwards (Fig. 4A). Pleonites 3-5 (Fig. 4A, D) with large epimera directed backwards. Telson (Fig. 4D) about twice as wide as long, distal part trapezoidal with concave sides and truncate apex. Antennula (Fig. 4E) of three articles subequal in length, with three long aestethacs at apex. Antenna (Fig. 4F) with fifth article of peduncle slightly longer than flagellum; flagellum of three articles, with three aesthetascs on second article. Mandibles (Fig. 5A, B) with one free penicil on the right and two free penicils on the left. Maxillula (Fig. 5C) outer branch with 4 + 6 teeth, setose stem among outer group of teeth, inner branch with three stout penicils at apex, inner penicil smaller than other two. Maxilla (Fig. 5D) with bilobed and setose apex. Maxilliped (Fig. 5E) endite with stout subtriangular penicil at apex, palp distally rounded with long setae, basal article with two setae. Uropod (Fig. 5F) with flattened protopod; exopod slightly shorter than endopod, with tuft of apical setae; endopod with single apical seta.
Male
Pereopod 1 (Fig. 6A) with no distinct modifications. Pereopod 7 (Fig. 6B) ischium with slightly convex sternal margin, carpus with large distal lobe on sternal margin. Genital papilla as in Fig. 6C. Pleopod 1 (Fig. 6D) exopod triangular, longer than wide, slightly concave outer margin and straight medial margin; endopod distinctly longer than exopod, second article with parallel sides, distally with sinuous outer margin and rounded apex. Pleopod 2 (Fig. 6E) exopod longer than wide, with concave outer margin and sinuous medial margin; endopod much longer than exopod with apical part bent outwards. Pleopod 3-5 exopods as in Figs 6 F-H.
REMARKS
The new species is included in the genus Moserius for the dorsal ornamentation, i.e. presence of 4+4 longitudinal ribs on the pereonite 1, 3 + 3 on the pereonites 2-6, 2 + 2 on pereonite 7, and two tubercles on the pleonite 3. As pointed out by Taiti & Ferrara (1995) the genus Moserius is very similar in the dorsal ornamentation to Carloniscus Verhoeff, 1936, which comprises only the species C. dollfusi (Carl, 1908) from south-eastern France and Corsica. Moserius seems to be also very similar to the genus Beroniscus Vandel, 1967 with two cave-dwelling species from Bulgaria (B. capreolus Vandel, 1967) and from Sicily (B. marcelli Vandel, 1969) (see Vandel 1967, 1969). It is uncertain that the three genera are really distinct and a molecular analysis might clarify this problem.
To date, the genus Moserius includes three species: M. percoi recorded from caves in Slovenia, Tuscany and the subspecies M. percoi ribaldonei Brian, 1963, from Liguria, M. elbanus Taiti & Ferrara, 1995, from a cave on Elba Island, Tuscany, and M. inexpectatus Reboleira & Taiti, 2015, from a cave in central Portugal. The new species differs from M. percoi in the number and disposition of the dorsal tubercles on the cephalon and in the longer second rib from the median line on the pereonite 1 (see Strouhal 1940 and Taiti & Ferrara 1995); from M. elbanus in having all the ribs on the pereonite 1 of equal length, the presence of a lobe on the male pereopod 7 carpus, and the distal part of the male pleopod 1 endopod with rounded instead of pointed apex (see Taiti & Ferrara 1995); from M. inexpectatus in the absence of dorsal tubercles on the pleonites 4, 5 and telson, and especially in the male pleopod 1 exopod with a rounded instead of sinuous distal margin (see Reboleira et al. 2015).
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 page 202, DOI: 10.5252/zoosystema2018v40a11, http://zenodo.org/record/3741502