Dicyrtomidae, Borner C, 1906

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 : 342

Family Dicyrtomidae

Dicyrtomina sp. (or spp.). The species of the genus are quite common in the forests in the mountainous parts of the nature reserve [ Kuznetsova et al., 2019]. Several colour forms are known to occur in the nature reserve: from almost devoid of dark pigment (except for the eye fields) (as in D. minuta f. pallida Ågren, 1903) to uniformly purple with small lighter spots (as in D. cf. violacea (Krausbauer, 1898)) . An intermediate variant similar to the colouration of D. ornata (Nicolet, 1842) was also recorded [ Kuznetsova et al., 2019]. The question of whether these forms are independent species or just colour variations of one remains open.

Dicyrtoma fusca (Lubbock, 1873) . A widespread Holarctic species [ Bretfeld, 1999] said to be common in the forest belt of the nature reserve [ Kuchiev, 2006], but absent from our material.

Ptenothrix atra (Linnaeus, 1758) . This species is considered Holarctic, although the synonymy of P. atra and the Nearctic P. unicolor (Harvey, 1893) is questionable [see Christiansen and Bellinger, 1981; Bretfeld, 1999]. In the nature reserve, it was found in a pine forest of the Tsey Gorge [ Kuznetsova et al., 2019].