Szeptyckitheca machadoi (Delamare-Deboutteville & Massoud, 1964)

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 machadoi (Delamare-Deboutteville & Massoud, 1964)

Sminthurotheca machadoi Delamare-Deboutteville & Massoud, 1964a: 80.

Diagnosis.

Specimens with transversal stripes and spots of dark pigment. Ant. IV with ten subsegments; Ant. III with 21 chaetae other than the sensory clubs, two of them as small sensilla in individual cavities; Ant. II with 15 chaetae, one of them as a small sensillum in cavity, four of the regular chaetae clearly longer than the others. Head vertex with a total of 16 large spines, two of them unpaired; unpaired chaeta A1 present; secondarily reduced chaetae near the spines absent. Trochanters I-III with 1,0,1 spines, respectively, trochanters I and III spines blunt; trochanter III with four regular chaetae other than the spine. Ungues with a single inner tooth, with tunica and strong pseudonychia; unguiculus I with the internal tooth; unguiculus III filament thin and surpassing the tip of the unguis III. Female with a long subanal appendage (surpassing the ventral anal valves), spatulated, apically serrated on both edges. Dens ventral chaetotaxy formula from the apex to the base as: 2,2 … 1, dorsal chaetotaxy with 24 chaetae; mucronal notch prominent (adapted from Delamare-Deboutteville and Massoud 1964a).

Remarks.

The genus Sminthurotheca Delamare-Deboutteville & Massoud, 1964 was erected based on a supposedly unique combination of Ant. III and large abdomen chaetotaxy. It was posteriorly synonymized with Sphyrotheca by Betsch (1980), due to the overlapping morphology of both genera. Later, Sphyrotheca machadoi was tranfered to Szeptyckitheca by Betsch and Weiner (2009), especially due to the presence of a spine on the trochanter I and the ventral dens chaetotaxy with three whorls of chaetae. Further data on the species are presented in Table 2 .

Habitat.

Specimens were found in gallery forests, in plant debris ( Delamare-Deboutteville and Massoud 1964a).

Known distribution.

Angola, Congo ( Delamare-Deboutteville and Massoud 1964a).