Lepidocyrtus (Setogaster) Salmon, 1951

Mateos, Eduardo & Greenslade, Penelope, 2015, Towards understanding Lepidocyrtus Bourlet, 1839 (Collembola, Entomobryidae) I: diagnosis of the subgenus Setogaster, new records and redescriptions of species, Zootaxa 4044 (1), pp. 105-129 : 125-126

Lepidocyrtus (Setogaster) Salmon, 1951

Type species: Trichogaster bispinosus Handschin, 1932

Type locality: Indonesia, West Java, Tjibodas, Quellen bei Kandang Badak, 2400 m ii–vii.1929. = Merapicyrtus Yoshii &Suhardjono, 1992 syn. nov.

Diagnosis. Body of moderate size with mesothorax not projecting over the head ( L. merapicus is of large size and has mesothorax projected over head); without scales on antennae, legs, ventral tube and dorsal face of manubrium; ant.IV with subapical T-chaeta; ventral cephalic with 3+3 ciliated chaetae along cephalic groove; dorsal cephalic chaetae A3 mesochaeta, A4 mesochaeta or macrochaeta depending on species; abd.II chaeta a2p absent, chaeta m3 short ciliated macrochaeta, chaeta m5 mesochaeta; abd.III with lateral tuft of long ciliated filaments (not present during all life stages); abd.IV chaeta C1 mesochaeta, B4–5–6 ciliated macrochaetae, chaeta a bilobed fan-shaped, chaetae m and D1 paddle-like fan-shaped, with two lateral pseudopori located externally to mesochaetae r3–r4–r5, ratio T2-T4/C1p<4 (see Table 2); dentes with short rounded dental tubercle (or without); basal mucronal spine with spinelet.

Species allocation. The study of the type series of Lepidocyrtus nigrofasciatus , several specimens identified as Lepidocyrtus praecisus by Womersley, and the three (Salmon 1951) Trichogaster holotypes from Singapore reveals that L. nigrofasciatus , L. praecisus , T. fasciata and T. coerulea show the characters defining Setogaster (rounded dental tubercle, and mucronal basal spine with spinelet), while T. pallida has a well-developed and pointed dental tubercle, a character defining Acrocyrtus . Also the study of the Lepidocyrtus kuakea paratype has allowed us to verify that this species has spinelet in the basal mucronal spine. As a result, from the list of currently recognised species within the subgenus Setogaster (see Bellinger et al. 1996–2015), the species Lepidocyrtus (Setogaster) pallida must be removed (because it belongs to subgenus Acrocyrtus ), and the species L. (S.) kuakea , L. (S.) nigrofasciatus , and L. (S.) praecisus must be added. Species of subgenus Cinctocyrtus (by definition) have no spinelet in basal mucronal spine, and the following species (listed in Bellinger et al. 1996–2015) Lepidocyrtus (Cinctocyrtus) cinctus , filamentosus and sandakanicus have the spinelet (see Yoshii 1982, Yoshii & Suhardjono, 1989), so following the Wang et al. (2003) criterion, they must now be placed in Setogaster also. Baquero et al. (2015) described the new species Lepidocyrtus (Cinctocyrtus) kulluensis from Indian Himalaya region. But in our opinion, following Wang et al. (2003), this species has to be ascribed to Setogaster subgenus (not to Cinctocyrtus), because of the presence of a small rounded dental tubercle and a spinelet in mucronal basal spine. Other characters of this new species seems to be the same as for Setogaster subgenus as it is described in the present paper. But some important chaetotaxic characters are not properly described in the Baquero et al. paper, specially body dorsal chaetotaxy. This chaetotaxy needs to be redescribed prior to be sure about the proper affinity of Lepidocyrtus kulluensis .

Distribution. Indonesia (Borneo, Java, Moluccas), Singapore, Malaysia, India, Hawaii, Australia.

Remarks. Merapicyrtus was erected on a single character, a lamella on the mucro ( Yoshii & Suhardjono 1992b), but it had been previously described as possessing two spines in this position ( Yoshii & Suhardjono 1989). We consider the original description was correct, especially after Yoshii’s (1994) publication where he added a note to the already published paper stating that the mucronal lamella was an artifact, hence the synonym made here.