Szeptyckitheca coerulea (Bretfeld 2005)

Bellini, Bruno Cavalcante, Oliveira, Mariana Fernandes De, Weiner, Wanda Maria, Nunes, Rudy Camilo & Medeiros, Gleyce Da Silva, 2023, Revisiting Szeptyckitheca Betsch & Weiner (Collembola, Symphypleona, Sminthuridae): new species, updated diagnoses, and a key, ZooKeys 1186, pp. 139-174 : 139

Szeptyckitheca coerulea (Bretfeld 2005)

Sphyrotheca coerulea Bretfeld, 2005: 32.

Diagnosis.

Head and body almost completely blue, with pale spots. Ant. IV with nine or ten subsegments; Ant. II with 15 or 16 chaetae; Ant. I with seven chaetae. Eyepatches with two regular interocular chaetae each. Head vertex with a total of six large smooth spines, none of them unpaired; unpaired chaeta A1 present; secondarily reduced chaetae near the spines absent. Trochanters I-III with 1,1,1 spines, respectively, all blunt; trochanter III with five regular chaetae other than the spine. Ungues with a single inner tooth, with tunica and strong pseudonychia; unguiculus I without the internal tooth; unguiculus III filament thin and not reaching the tip of the unguis III. Large abdomen dorsally with several capitate mac. Female with a long subanal appendage (surpassing the ventral anal valves), acuminate, apically serrated on its internal face. Manubrium with 7+7 dorsal chaetae; dens ventral chaetotaxy formula from the apex to the base as: 4,2 … 1, dorsal chaetotaxy with 16 chaetae; mucronal notch prominent (adapted from Bretfeld 2005).

Remarks.

Szeptyckitheca coerulea is the only species of the genus with six spines on the head vertex. Further data on the species are presented in Table 2 .

Habitat.

Specimens were found on shrubs and grasses near a stream of water ( Bretfeld 2005).

Known distribution.

Yemen (Socotra Island) ( Bretfeld 2005).