New Australian Paronellidae (Collembola) reveal anomalies in existing tribal diagnoses
- Authors: Zhang, Feng , Ma, Yitong , Greenslade, Penelope
- Date: 2017
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Invertebrate Systematics Vol. 31, no. 4 (2017), p. 375-393
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- Description: We describe here two new species, Zhuqinia jingwanae, gen. & sp. nov. and Paronellides praefectus, sp. nov., both from Mount Twynam, New South Wales, Australia. The systematic position of Zhuqinia, gen. nov. in relation to other paronellids is not clear because the new genus possesses pointed, heavily striated scales similar to species of Callyntrurini. However, unlike species in that tribe, it lacks dental scales. Instead, Zhuqinia, gen. nov. is more similar to the unscaled genus Paronellides (Cremastocephalini) in other characters (abundant tergal macrochaetae, 2, 2|1, 2, 2, ?, 3 tergal S-chaetae, moderately long mucro with two teeth, etc.) but body scales are absent in all species of Paronellides. Multilocus phylogeny shows Zhuqinia, gen. nov. clustering with Paronellides rather than Callyntrurini or other Cremastocephalini genera. This study provides new information on the relationships between paronellid taxa, and changes the current higher classification of the family, particularly that of the tribes Cremastocephalini and Callyntrurini. As the new genus is known only from two peaks in the Snowy Mountain range, our data emphasise the role of montane areas as refugia for short-range endemic taxa. © CSIRO 2017.
Synonymy of Katianna coeruleocephala Handschin, 1920 (Collembola: Katiannidae) with Bourletiella viridescens (Bourletiellidae)
- Authors: Greenslade, Penelope
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Zootaxa Vol. 4066, no. 1 (2016), p. 78-80
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- Description: Katianna coeruleocephala was described by Handschin in 1920 from Poespo, Java. It was collected in December, 1896 by Dr. Zehntner with the collecting details given as rotten "Louv" (leaves?) from live orchard. Handschin (1920) labelled his figures of the species (p. 146) as Katianna coerulescephala but the first spelling of the species name (p. 145) has priority. Katianna coeruleocephala has never been recollected. The only mention of the species in the literature since 1920 has been by Suhardjono (1989) in a check list for Indonesia and Suhardjono (2012) who listed it as present on Java and provided the main characteristics of the genus Katianna Börner, 1923. She stated it was a "new" (translate as endemic?) species in Java with a preferred habitat in cold and damp litter but no comment was made on the taxonomic status of the Indonesian species. There has previously been some doubt over both the original generic and family designation given by Handschin in 1920 for the species by both Yoshii (pers. comm.) and Murphy (pers. comm.) who believed it was "likely to belong to the family Bourletiellidae". They did not examine the holotype but based their comments on Handschin's (1920) figure of the mucro which shows it having fairly broad and smooth inner and outer lamellae (Fig. 5). The genus Katianna always has one, the inner, lateral lamella, distinctly toothed. The holotype and single specimen from the Basle Museum of Natural History has been examined and the results are reported here. Copyright © 2016 Magnolia Press.
A note on scale morphology in Collembola
- Authors: Hawes, Timothy , Greenslade, Penelope
- Date: 2015
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Zootaxa Vol. 3925, no. 4 (2015), p. 594-596
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- Description: Many Collembola (e.g. Entomobryidae: Tomoceridae) are characterised by a ‘clothing’ (sensu Salmon 1941) of scales. These scales confer a metallic-silver colour, which, when the scales catch the light, renders an iridescence to the surface of these hexapods. The functional significance of these scales is incompletely understood, although there is some evidence that they contribute to predator evasion (Bauer & Pfeiffer 1991). Their presence or absence is a fundamental taxonomic character for many genera, while more specifically, their morphology has been widely used as a species-specific character since the first studies in Collembola systematics (Beck 1873; Salmon 1941). From an evolutionary perspective, scales represent a derivation of cuticular setae (André 1988) that has been adopted independently by different taxa. For example, a study by Zhang et al. (2014) has recently demonstrated the independent origin of scales at least five times in the family Entomobryidae. This note briefly draws attention to previously unrecognised complexity in scale presence and architecture in Collembola at the level of individual species. An informed recognition of this complexity is recommended for future taxonomy.