Neelidae, Folsom JW, 1896

Antipova, M. D. & Babenko, A. B., 2022, An annotated checklist of the springtails (Hexapoda: Collembola) recorded from the foothill and mountain parts of the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania, North Caucasus, Russia, Russian Entomological Journal 31 (4), pp. 331-345 : 341

Family Neelidae

Megalothorax willemi Schneider et D’Haese, 2013 . Apparently, a widespread European species. In the Tsey Gorge, it is abundant in a wide variety of habitats, first appearing at the shrub stage of overgrowth of the foreland (2295 m a.s.l.), then lower down the slope it occurs everywhere, down to beech forests (1865 m a.s.l.). Kuznetsova et al. [2019] quote an indefinite representative of the genus, recorded from pine forests near the villages of Verkhniy Tsey and Nar. Verification of pertinent material shows that mainly it contains M. willemi , but the type species of the genus is also present (see below).

M. minimus Willem, 1900 . For a long time the species was considered cosmopolitan, but due to changes in the taxonomy [Schneider a D’Haese, 2013], it is clearly premature to presume the real distribution area of the species. We have found individuals of this species in the relevant collections of Kuznetsova et al. [2019] from pine forests of Verkhniy Tsey and Nar. * Neelus murinus Folsom, 1896 . Considered cosmopolitan, but many “old” records probably need to be revised. This is the first record from North Ossetia: a maple forest of the Tsey Gorge (1984 m a.s.l).