Pseudosinella francae Giuga & Jordana, 2023

Giuga, Luca, Jordana, Rafael & Baquero, Enrique, 2023, Three new species of Collembola from Sicily with first record of the genus Superodontella Stach, 1949 from Italy, Zootaxa 5249 (5), pp. 559-576 : 570-574

Pseudosinella francae Giuga & Jordana sp. nov.

Figs 7–9 ; Table 5

Type locality. Northwestern Sicily, Trapani, Erice , Ballata ; 37.974367N, 12.680431E, 240–250m a.s.l.

Type material. Holotype: Female on slide (#TRAPANI_ULIVETO_ SIC1-01 ), Ballata, Erice , Trapani Province , Sicily, olive orchard on soil, 14.x.2019, leg. R. Rizzo . Paratypes: one specimen on slide (# SIC3-04 without visible sexual plate), same data as holotype . Holotype and one paratype deposited at MZNA .

Other material. Same data and locality as type material ; two specimens preserved in ethyl alcohol and deposited at MZNA .

Diagnosis. Body with some blue pigment on antennae and first leg segments. Head with 3+3 eyes (B, C, H); A 0, A 2, A 3, S 3 and Pa 5 as Mc; basomedial labial fields chaetae smooth; posterior labial row with M 2, E, L 1 and L 2 Mc, R absent; Th II with one Mc, Th III without Mc; Abd II with chaetae a 2 (a) and p 2 (p) absent, a 3 near of ‘as’ sensillum and forward m 3 Mc; Abd IV with one median Mc (B 5), B 6 as mic or mes, two (instead of three) smooth mic above anterior bothriotrichum, and without ‘s’ mic; claw with three internal teeth: two basal and one unpaired; empodium acuminate and external lamella smooth; manubrial plate with one internal and one external chaetae.

Description. Body length up to 0.60 mm, head included, excluding antennae (holotype: 0.60 mm). Blue color is evenly dispersed throughout the body, dorsal and ventral head, antennae, and legs. Scales absent on antennae and legs, present on the ventral and dorsal head, thorax and abdomen dorsally, and furcula only ventrally.

Head. Ant head ratio 1.3 (n =2). Ant IV with simple apical bulb, apical organite and accessory sensillum; Ant III sense organ with two rod-shaped sensilla (individually encased in a pit) and three spiny guard sensilla; on Ant II one distal similar to Ant III sensillum. 3+ 3 eyes in a longitudinal line (B, C, H). Head dorsal chaetotaxy with 5–6 antennal (An) ciliated Mc; A 0, A 2, A 3, S 3, and Pa 5 as Mc ( Fig. 7A ); 4/554 labral chaetae: prelabral ciliated, labral row ‘p’ and ‘m’ ciliated; labral row ‘a’ smooth, a 2 bi-furcated and a 1 multi-furcated ( Fig. 7B ). Labral papillae absent. Maxillary palp bifurcate with three smooth sublobal chaetae. Labial papilla (l.p.) E with finger-shaped process reaching the base of apical appendage. Labial row with M 2, E, L 1 and L 2 as ciliated Mc, R absent. Postlabial chaetotaxy with 3 +1–3+ 1 ciliated central Mc along the groove and with four smooth mic ( Fig. 7C ).

Thorax ( Fig. 8 ). Th II with one Mc (p 3), al and ms in anterolateral position; Th III without Mc, with a 1 –a 4, m 2, m 4 and m 6, p 1 –p 4 and p 6, and three Mc above the sensillum (al).

Abdomen ( Figs 8 , 9A ). Abd I with a 1 –a 3, a 5 –a 6, m 2 –m 6, p 5 and p 6, ms near a 6. Abd II, mi and ml chaetae present over bothriotrichum (m 2); a 2p (p) and a 2 (a) absent; m 3 (B) as Mc; sensillum as and a 3 mic above m 3 Mc; m 3e and p 4 (q 1 and q 2) as smooth mic; lm, ll, a 6 and m 4 present as smooth mic over bothriotrichum (a 5); m 5 as Mc; Abd III, mi, ml, a 2, as smooth pointed mic over bothriotrichum (m 2); ‘as’ near m 3 apparently smooth; a 3, m 4 and p 3 as smooth and pointed mic; a 3 present or absent; li, lm, and a 6, as smooth pointed mic surrounding bothriotrichum (a 5); em, am 6 and a 7 as smooth pointed mic bellow a 5 bothriotrichum; m 6 an p 6 as Mc, p 3, p 5 and p 7 mic. Abd IV with one median Mc (B 5), B 6 as mic or mes, and four lateral mes (D 3, D e3, E 3, F 1); two smooth mic (m and D 1) above T 2 bothriotrichum ( Fig. 9A ); all mic smooth and pointed.

Legs. Legs without scales. Trochanteral organ with 6–7 stiff chaetae ( Fig. 9B ). Claw with three teeth on inner edge: basal pair at 40% and 50 % with respect to the internal claw edge length, unpaired at 70 %; two lateral teeth at 40%, dorsal tooth not seen. Empodium acuminate, all with smooth external lamella (pe), other lamellae smooth (ae, ai, pi); claw/empodium ratio:0.57 (n= 2). Tita III distally with one smooth inner chaeta (6µm in length), tenent hair capitate, smooth, and same lenght of claw (10µm) ( Fig. 9C ).

Furcula. Manubrium and dens with scales only ventrally and with the same length; manubrial plate (dorsally) with one internal and one external Mc, and 1 psp. Mucro, with subapical tooth similar to apical one, and with a basal spine.

Macrochaetotaxy. Reduced formula (from Gisin 1965, 1967a, b): R 1 R 2 011/10/0100+1/0, --Bq 1 q 2, -M 2 -EL 1 L 2.

Ecology and distribution. All specimens were obtained in the same locality, in olive orchard soil. According to the available data of presence, P. francae sp. nov. occurs with a low frequency.

Etymology. This species is lovely dedicated to Franca Muccio the mum of the first author.

Discussion. The species that share the traditional reduced formula of Gisin: 011/10 on the head and Th II and III, presence of 3 +3 corneolae, and without supplementary chaeta ‘s’ on Abd IV are: P. apuanica Dallai, 1970 , P. fallax ( Börner, 1903) sensu Dallai 1976 , P. trioculata Gama, 1988 , P. zaragozana Arbea, 2006 , and P. francae sp. nov. The differences between these species are shown in Table 5 . The new species shows ten differences with respect to P. apuanica , twelve with P. fallax , and fourteen with P. zaragozana . The more similar species is P. trioculata but its description is short and lacks a lot of information; nevertheless, it shows six differences with respect to new species: R present on labium as smooth mic; ‘a’ present on Abd II as smooth mic; two Mc on medial dorsal Abd IV; three chaetae above T 2 on Abd IV; claw wing tooth absent; bigger body length. Furthermore P. trioculata is from Canary Islands. What was said in the previous species ( L. rapitalai sp. nov.) regarding the identity of the chaeta Sm is also valid for this species.

Figures

FIGURE 7. Pseudosinella francae sp. nov.: A, dorsal head chaetotaxy (hollow circles are proportional to reality); B, prelabral chaetae (pr) and labral chaetae (rows ‘p’, ‘m’ and ‘a’); C, ventral head chaetotaxy and detail of the postlabial area. Scale bar: A and C= 25μm; B=10 μm.

FIGURE 8. Pseudosinella francae sp. nov.: Th II to AbdIII dorsal chaetotaxy, and detail of p3 chaeta of ThII. Scale bar: 30 μm.

FIGURE 9. Pseudosinella francae sp. nov.: A, AbdIV dorsal chaetotaxy (hollow circles are proportional to reality); B, trochanteral organ; C, apical part of tibiotarsus, claw and empodium of legIII. Scale bar: A=20 μm; B–C=10 μm.