Psyllipsocus spec.

Lienhard, Charles & Ferreira, Rodrigo L., 2014, New species of Psyllipsocus from Brazilian caves (Psocodea: ‘ Psocoptera’: Psyllipsocidae), Revue suisse de Zoologie 121 (2), pp. 211-246 : 238-239

Psyllipsocus spec. cf. punctulatus Lienhard Fig. 15

MATERIAL EXAMINED: ISLA; ♀ (slide-mounted); BRAZIL ( MG), Januária/Itacarambi ,

Gruta Brejal cave, 25.vii.2003, leg. R. L. Ferreira.

DESCRIPTION OF FEMALE: Head dark brown, compound eyes dark brown, thorax and legs medium brown, tibiae without transversal bands, forewing with characteristic colour pattern (Fig. 15A), abdomen yellowish brown, terminalia light brown.

General morphology as in the above described male of P. punctulatus , except for the following details. Forewing (Fig. 15A): distal closed cell almost equal in length to basal closed cell; first portion of pterostigmal R1 clearly longer than R1-Rs crossvein; M1 strongly curved; CuA1 basally straight, strongly curved distally, AP slightly taller than in the above described male. Pedicellar microspades organ with 4 units in both antennae. Both maxillary palps broken off.

Subgenital plate simple, with some long fine setae on posterior margin. Ovipositor valvulae as in Fig. 15B, v1 and v2 each with a slightly sclerotized median axis. Spermapore plate with a roughly triangular sclerite (Fig. 15CD). Spermathecal duct of medium length; spermathecal wall very thin (damaged after slide-mounting), with a characteristic sclerite and a pair of oval granulate structures near duct; spermatophore not sclerotized (Fig. 15C).

MEASUREMENTS: Female: BL = 1.5 mm; FW = 1820 µm; FWw = 620 µm; FW/FWw = 2.94; HW = 1540 µm; F = 300 µm; T = 650 µm; t1 = 200 µm; t2 = 47 µm; t3 = 52 µm; IO/D = 1.6.

DISTRIBUTION AND HABITAT: The Gruta Brejal cave (MG), where this specimen was collected, is situated about 720 km from the type locality of P. punctulatus (Toca do Inferno cave, PI). These caves are very different: whilst Toca do Inferno cave is dry and light (the cave ceiling has a slit-like opening), Brejal cave is a large and voluminous cave (length about 1.5 km) traversed by a river, with most areas being aphotic zones. In Brejal cave, the specimen was collected on a bat guano pile, in a completely aphotic zone.

DISCUSSION: The specimen described above may be the female of P. punctulatus or of a closely related new species. It differs from the male holotype of P. punctulatus by some minor characters of colouration and general morphology: wing pattern not so clearly delimited to small spots, veins M1 and CuA1 somewhat more curved than in male, AP slightly taller and distal closed cell slightly longer than in male (Fig. 15A), pedicellar microspades organ with 4 units (6 in male, Fig. 14D), compound eyes somewhat larger than in male. Unfortunately this female lacks maxillary palps, thus the presence of the P2-sensillum could not be verified. At present we hesitate to assign this female definitively to P. punctulatus . This problem would be resolved when discovering the missing sex of at least one of these populations.

FIG. 15

Psyllipsocus spec. cf. punctulatus , female. (A) Forewing. (B) Right ovipositor valvulae and right hind corner of clunium. (C) Spermapore plate, spermathecal duct and basal part of spermathecal sac containing one spermatophore. (D) Spermapore plate, enlarged.