Borgesminthurinus, Palacios-Vargas & Vacaflores-Argandoña, 2020

Palacios-Vargas, José G. & Vacaflores-Argandoña, Ma. René, 2020, A new genus and species of Katiannidae (Collembola: Symphypleona) from Bolivia, Zootaxa 4819 (2), pp. 201-215 : 202-206

Borgesminthurinus gen. nov. Palacios-Vargas

Diagnosis. Body globular, characterized by having thick, relatively long and slightly barbulate setae, very abundant on head and body; with full set of trichobothria present; A, B, C in a triangle on great abdomen and one pair of trichobothria on lesser abdomen (D); no neosminthuroid setae. Setae in large abdomen are thick but short. in singlets. Normal chewing mouth parts. Ant. IV undivided and longer than Ant. III; Ant. III with papilla divided in lobes. Tibiotarsi with 7 tenent hairs on distal whorl; unguis with pseudonychia and no tunica. Sacs of ventral tube smooth; tenacular rami with 3 teeth and basal appendix, corpus tenaculum with 2 setae. Metathoracic legs with trochanteral organ. Dens with ventral chaetotaxy reduced (formula 4, 2 … 1); mucro small, without seta, internal edge crenulate, external smooth. Seta a0 of Abdominal segment VI of females no furcate and no winged setae on lateral anal valves; subanal appendix of female palmate.

Type species. Borgesminthururinus andinus gen. nov. sp. nov.

Etymology. The new genus is dedicated to Jorge Luis Borges (Buenos Aires, August 24, 1899 ‒‒Geneva, Swit-zerland, June 14, 1986), the Argentinean writer, author of the Manual of Fantastic Zoology, which included spherical animals as Symphypleona are.

Remarks. Borgesminthurinus gen. nov. differs from Sminthurinus by having thick and barbulate setae on head and body (versus thin and smooth), there are not neosminthuroid setae on abdomen; setae “a0” on Abd. VI acuminate (always furcated on Sminthurinus ) and lacks lateral winged setae on the supranal valve and on each lateral anal valve.

Both genera share the presence of Ant. IV undivided, and Ant. III with one papilla; sacs of ventral tube smooth; tenacular rami with 3 teeth and a basal appendix, dens with ventral chaetotaxy reduced and lack of mucronal seta. Most setae are thick and barbulated in the new genus ( Table 1 ).

Members of Katianna have 2+2 or 3+3 heavy spines on postocular lobes, and vertex of head with spine-like setae as illustrated by Delamare & Massoud (1963) in Neotropical species and remarked as generic character by Bernard (2014). This genus and the new one lack neosminthuroid seta and seta a0 on Abd. VI is simple, never furcate ( Table 1 ). The head and body chaetotaxy in the new genus are much more abundant than in genera S minthurinus and like Katianna , besides, in these last two genera setae are smooth and thin. Another important difference is that antennal IV of members of Katianna are clearly subdivided and in the new genus is undivided. Vesicephalus Richards, 1964 in Delamare & Massoud (1964) has two vesicles on the head, the antennal segment IV is undivided and antennal segment III has several long and barbulate setae and lacks anterior setae on dens. The new genus lacks the cephalic vesicles, has not long setae on antennal segment III and has several setae on anterior dens.