Cryptopygus Willem, 1902

Potapov, Mikhail B., Janion-Scheepers, Charlene & Deharveng, Louis, 2020, Taxonomy of the Cryptopygus complex. III. The revision of South African species of Cryptopygus and Isotominella (Collembola, Isotomidae), ZooKeys 945, pp. 99-127 : 99

Cryptopygus Willem, 1902

Type species.

Cryptopygus antarcticus Willem, 1902.

Diagnosis.

A genus of the Cryptopygus complex. Medial s-chaetae in mid-tergal position from Th. II to Abd. III. Number of s-chaetae 4,3/2,2,2,3,5. Foil chaetae at the end of abdomen absent.

Discussion.

Here we follow our simplified characterisation of the genus proposed formerly ( Potapov et al. 2017) that is an expanded version of diagnosis of Rusek (2002). The latter diagnosis offers to be within the limits of the definite number of ocelli (6+6), " antarcticus -like" furca and clavate tibiotarsal hairs. We presume a wide variation of the main characters: the mucro may be absent, bidentate or tridentate; the manubrium with or without anterior chaetae; the dens short and smooth to long and crenulated; the ocelli absent to their full set, i.e. 8+8; tenent tibiotarsal hairs clavate or pointed; number of ms-chaetae from 1,0/0,0,0 to 1,1/1,1,1; maxillary outer lobe with changeable shape of palp and number of sublobal hairs. In our view, the splitting of Cryptopygus to groups, subgenera or genera will be probably necessary, but calls for preliminary morphological revisions and expanded molecular data of known species.

Species closely related to C. antarcticus , i.e., belonging to Cryptopygus sensu Rusek, have also been found in this study in South Africa (see below) but their status remain unsolved because of the taxonomic and molecular complexity of this group (Deharveng, 1981; Stevens et al. 2006; McGaughran et al. 2010).