Aptilotella borgmeieri Duda

Luk, Stephen P. L. & Marshall, Stephen A., 2014, A revision of the New World genus Aptilotella Duda (Sphaeroceridae: Limosininae), Zootaxa 3761 (1), pp. 1-156 : 17-18

Aptilotella borgmeieri Duda

Aptilotella borgmeieri Duda, 1924: 74 .

The second author was unable to locate the type series of Aptilotella borgmeieri at MZSP. Since these specimens have apparently been lost, the following redescription of the male is adapted from Duda’s original German description in 1924 .

Gapasin (1972) and Smith (1994) both redescribed A. borgmeieri based on Duda (1924) and specimens that originated from “a long series in São Paulo [MZSP]” collected by F. Plaumann on an unknown date at 300–600 m in Nova Teutonia (abbreviated NT), Brazil. The structural characters recorded from this specimen by Smith (1994) are inconsistent with Duda’s description, including a reduced orbital bristle and double rows of interfrontal setae. Gapasin (1972) examined a single female from the NT series and illustrates a pair of bean-shaped spermathecae. No such spermathecal morphology is known in other Aptilotella . It is possible that Gapasin (1972) illustrated the deflated paired spermathecae, while the third spermatheca was either lost or overlooked. The NT series originated from Serra Geral, a mountain range separate from the Serra Da Mantiqueira Mountains in which the type locality of A. borgmeieri is situated. Because of uncertainty about the identity of the species described by Gapasin (1972) and Smith (1994), their notes are not reflected in the redescription below.

Description. Body length 0.9 mm. Head ground color dark brown. Frons black, shining; with a pair of narrow, parallel grey stripes. Ocelli absent; ocellar bristle three quarters the length of frons. Interfrontal setae minute, in two or three pairs. Several pairs of orbital setulae present. Orbital and vertical bristles absent. Face and gena shining; lunule, clypeus, and gena black. Body black, shining. Scutum twice wider than long; sparsely microtrichose. Scutellum approximately twice wider than long. Pleuron black. Legs brown; tarsi light brown; mid tibia with two anterodorsal bristles. Wings absent. Abdomen with large syntergite approximately the length of the other tergites combined.

Terminalia. Duda (1924) vaguely noted synsternite 6+7 and the epandrium, but did not describe any genitalic characters or dissect any specimens.

Type material. Holotype ♂ ( MZSP, not examined and probably lost). BRAZIL: Petrópolis, T. Borgmeier.

Comments. Duda’s original description is nebulous, but seems to be consistent with Clade 2. Aptilotella borgmeieri most closely resembles A. viva , from which it differs by the shining black body, dark colouration of the frons and gena, long ocellar bristle, and a few pairs of interfrontal setae and orbital setulae. In A. borgmeieri , the enlargement of the syntergite is far more pronounced than in other Aptilotella species. This is somewhat also noticeable in A. viva . An equivalent enlarged syntergite occurs in a remarkably similar undescribed Howickia species in New Zealand. This similarity is clearly due to convergence, and is not reflected in genitalic characters.

Aptilotella borgmeieri is the presently the only described species of Aptilotella from eastern South America.