Endonura longirostris, Smolis, Adrian, Shayanmehr, Masoumeh, Kuznetsova, Nataliya & Lafooraki, Elham Yoosefi, 2017

Smolis, Adrian, Shayanmehr, Masoumeh, Kuznetsova, Nataliya & Lafooraki, Elham Yoosefi, 2017, Three new remarkable species of the genus Endonura Cassagnau, 1979 from the Middle East and Central Asia (Collembola, Neanuridae, Neanurinae, Neanurini), ZooKeys 673, pp. 135-151 : 135

Endonura longirostris sp. n. Figs 1-10, Table 1

Type material.

Holotype: adult female on slide, Iran, Mazandarn province, Behshahr region, Abbas-Abad forest (36°40'N; 53°32'E), leaf litter and soil, 28.III.2013, leg. E. Yoosefi Lafooraki (DIBEC). Paratypes: 2 females on slide, same data as holotype.

Other material.

Juvenile on slide, Iran, Mazandarn province, Noor region, Kadirsar village (36°26'N; 51°49'E), leaf litter and soil, 1.III.2013, leg. E. Yoosefi Lafooraki (DIBEC).

Etymology.

The name longirostris refers to an exceptionally long buccal cone of this species.

Diagnosis.

Habitus typical of the genus Endonura . Dorsal tubercles present and well developed. 2+2 pigmented eyes. Buccal cone exceptionally long, labrum ogival. Head with chaetae A, B, C and D. Chaetae O and E absent. Tubercles Cl and Af separate. Tubercles Dl and (L+So) on head with 4 and 8 chaetae respectively. Tubercles Di on Th I absent. Tubercles De on Th II and III with 3 and 4 chaetae respectively. Tubercles L on Abd III and IV with 3 and 5-6 chaetae respectively. Abd IV and V with 8 and 3 tubercles respectively. Claw without inner tooth. Tibiotarsi with chaetae B4 and B5 short.

Description.

General. Body length (without antennae): 0.50 (juvenile) to 1.45 mm (holotype: 1.45 mm). Colour of the body white. 2+2 medium black eyes, in a typical arrangement for the genus (one anterior and one posterior eyes, Fig. 4).

Chaetal morphology. Dorsal ordinary chaetae of five types: long macrochaetae, short macrochaetae, very short macrochaetae, mesochaetae and microchaetae. Long macrochaetae thick, slightly arc-like or straight, narrowly sheathed, feebly serrated, apically rounded (Fig. 10). Macrochaetae Mc and Mcc morphologically similar to long macrochaetae, but much shorter. Mesochaetae similar to ventral chaetae, thin, smooth and pointed. Microchaetae similar to mesochaetae, but apparently short. S–chaetae of tergites thin, smooth and short, shorter than nearby macrochaetae (Figs 4, 7, 9).

Antennae. Typical of the genus. Dorsal chaetotaxy of Ant III–IV as in Fig. 3 and Table 1b. S–chaetae of Ant IV of medium length and moderately thickened, S2, S7 and S8 notably longer than others (Fig. 3). Apical vesicle distinct, trilobed (Figs 1, 2). Ventral chaetotaxy of Ant III–IV as in Fig. 5 and Table 1b.

Mouthparts. Buccal cone particularly long with labral sclerifications ogival. Labrum chaetotaxy: 0/2, 4 (Fig. 8). Labium with four basal, three distal and four lateral chaetae, papillae x absent. Maxilla styliform, mandible thin and tridentate.

Dorsal chaetotaxy and tubercles. Chaetotaxy of head reduced, chaetae E, O, Dl3, Dl6, So2 and L3 absent (Fig. 4). Tubercles Di on Th I not differentiated (Fig. 4). Thorax and abdomen with chaetae De2 and De3 free (Figs 4, 7). On Abd I–III, the line of chaetae De1-chaeta s non-perpendicular to the dorsomedian line. On Abd IV chaetae Di1 notably short (Fig. 7). Cryptopygy absent, Abd VI well visible from above.

Ventral chaetotaxy. On head, groups Vea, Vem and Vep with 3, 3, 3-4 chaetae respectively. Group Vi on head with 6 chaetae. On Abd IV, furca rudimentary without microchaetae. On Abd IV, tuberle L with one chaeta free (Fig. 6). On Abd V, chaetae Vl and L’ present.

Legs. Chaetotaxy of legs as in Table 1c. Claw without internal tooth. On tibiotarsi, chaeta M present and chaetae B4 and B5 relatively short and pointed.

Remarks.

Because of the presence of particularly elongated mouthparts and substantial reduction of chaetotaxy on lateral part of head, E. longirostris sp. n. strongly resembles E. cretensis (Ellis, 1976), known to date from Greece (Crete, Ellis 1976) and Israel ( Smolis and Kaprus’ 2009). Nevertheless, these species can be easily distinguished from each other by the set of characters: body colour (in longirostris white, in cretensis bluish), presence/absence of chaeta O on head (in longirostris absent, in cretensis present), number of labial chaetae (in longirostris ten, in cretensis eight), presence/absence of tubercles Di on Th I (in longirostris absent, in cretensis present), number of ordinary chaetae De on Abd I-III (in longirostris three, in cretensis two) and number of chaetae Di on penultimate abdominal segment (in longirostris 3+3, in cretensis 1-2+1-2).

Viewing the recently published key to Endonura species (Smolis et al. 2016b), E. longirostris sp. n. is placed the nearest to E. saleri Fanciulli et Dallai, 2008, described from northeastern Italy ( Fanciulli and Dallai 2008). However, these species differ in a number of details, including: shape of labrum (in longirostris ogival, in saleri nonogival), number of chaetae (L+So) on head (in longirostris eight, in saleri nine), number of chaetae Dl on head (in longirostris four, in saleri five), location of chaetae De 2 on Th II-III (in longirostris free, in saleri connected with tubercle De), location of chaetae De 2 on Abd I-III (in longirostris free, in saleri connected with tubercle De) and length of chaeta Di1 on Abd IV (in longirostris distinctly shorter than chaeta Di1 of Abd V, in saleri slightly shorter than chaeta Di1 of Abd V).