Oligaphorurini, Bagnall, 1949

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 : 334

Tribe Oligaphorurini

Oligaphorura absoloni (Börner, 1901) . A widespread Holarctic species common in forests, including North Caucasian ones [ Dobrolyubova, 1988; Kuznetsova et al., 2019]. Therefore, it appeared with the forests overgrowing the Tsey foreland. In addition to the pine forests, it also lives in a maple and a beech forest of the nature reserve.

O. montivaga Shveenkova et Babenko, 2022 . A recently described species from the marcuzzii -group. In the fauna of the republic, it was found near the village of Nar and referred to as O. sp.n.1 aff. kremenitsai Shvejonkova et Potapov, 2012 [ Kuznetsova et al., 2019].

Oligaphorura sp. 1 . Probably a new species, characterized by the presence of 9 distal setae on the tibiotarsus and the absence of pso on the subcoxae [Yu.B. Shveenkova, personal communication]. In the nature reserve (Tsey), only two specimens were captured, both in a green-moss-grasslessazalea pine forest, 1676 m a.s.l., referred to as O. cf. caucasica (Weiner et Kaprus, 2014) [ Kuznetsova et al., 2019].

Oligaphorura sp. 2 . The species was recorded from a pine forest in the vicinity of Verkhniy Tsey, referred to as O. cf. pieninensis (Weiner, 1988) [ Kuznetsova et al., 2019]. Most likely, this is another undescribed species distinguished from O. absoloni by the presence of 5 protective papillae in the antennal organ, and from O. pieninensis (Weiner, 1988) by the absence of pso on the fourth abdominal sternite [Yu.B. Shveenkova, personal communication].

Oligaphorura sp. 3 . A few juveniles of this likely undescribed species were known from the Tsey Valley [see Shveenkova and Babenko, 2022]. In the paper of Kuznetsova et al. [2019], this species was referred to as O. sp.n.2 aff. kremenitsai Shveenkova et Potapov, 2012.

** Oligaphorura sp. 4 . Still another possibly new species of the genus, which is characterized by 2 pso on thorax I and an increased number of pso on the abdomen. In our material, we have only three specimens (2 females and one juvenile) from the Tsey Gorge, which have been found in two plots: a young birch forest at an altitude of 2240 m a.s.l. and a mixed forest at 2190 m a.s.l.