Szeptyckitheca mucroserrata (Snider, 1978)

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 mucroserrata (Snider, 1978)

Sphyrotheca mucroserratus Snider, 1978: 236.

Diagnosis.

Antennae, legs, and furca purplish, head purplish near the mouth, with purple bands between the antennae and on its vertex, trunk laterally with pale purple bands, posterior abdomen purplish. Ant. IV with nine or ten subsegments. Eyepatches with two interocular chaetae modified into strong spines each. Head vertex with a total of 16 large spines, two of them unpaired; unpaired chaeta A1 absent. Trochanter III spine blunt, with five extra regular chaetae. Ungues with a single inner tooth, with tunica but lacking pseudonychia; unguiculus I without the internal tooth; unguiculus III filament thin and reaching the tip of the unguis III. Large abdomen lacking capitate mac. Female with a long subanal appendage (surpassing the ventral anal valves), spatulated or acuminated, serrated at the tip. Manubrium with 7+7 dorsal chaetae; dens ventral chaetotaxy formula from the apex to the base as: 3,2 … 1, dorsal chaetotaxy with 14 chaetae; mucronal notch discrete (adapted from Snider 1978).

Remarks.

The short description of Snider (1978) of Sphyrotheca mucroserratus limits the comparison of this species with its congeners. It lacks many important useful taxonomical features (see Table 1 ), including some recognized as diagnostic of the genus, like the presence of the trochanter I spine and even the pair of neosminthuroid chaetae which are diagnostic of the Sphyrothecinae . The wide distribution of the species, recorded from all Americas, combined with its generic and imprecise diagnosis, support the hypothesis that the name Szeptyckitheca mucroserrata has possibly been used to circumscribe a complex of species. In this scenario its redescription is urgent, to improve the comprehension of the morphology and distribution of Szeptyckitheca species from the New World.

Habitat.

Specimens listed in the original description were found associated with Australian pine needles, leaf mold, and forest debris in Florida, USA ( Snider 1978). In Brazil, specimens of S. mucroserrata were found associated to forest litter and on sand dunes ( Abrantes et al. 2012).

Known distribution.

Brazil, Mexico, and USA ( Snider 1978; Mari-Mutt and Bellinger 1996; Abrantes et al. 2012).