Szeptyckitheca spinimucronata (Itoh, 1993)

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 spinimucronata (Itoh, 1993)

Sphyrotheca spinimucronata Itoh, 1993, in Itoh and Zhao 1993: 33.

Diagnosis.

White ground with diffuse purple pigment on anterior and dorsal head and dorsal and lateral trunk, antennae darker. Ant. IV with ~ 10 subsegments. Head vertex with a total of 16 large spines, two of them unpaired; unpaired chaeta A1 present; secondarily reduced chaetae near the spines absent. Trochanter III spine blunt, with five extra regular chaetae. Ungues with a single inner tooth, with tunica and lacking pseudonychia; unguiculus I without the internal tooth; unguiculus III filament thin and not reaching the tip of the unguis III. Large abdomen without capitate mac. Female with a long subanal appendage (surpassing the ventral anal valves), acuminate, apically serrated on both edges. Manubrium with 7+7 dorsal chaetae; dens ventral chaetotaxy formula from the apex to the base as: 3,2 … 1, dorsal chaetotaxy with 17 chaetae; mucronal notch prominent (adapted from Itoh and Zhao 1993).

Remarks.

Sphyrotheca spinimucronata is listed as a Szeptyckitheca species in Bellinger et al. (1996-2023), possibly due to its resemblance with S. nepalica ( Itoh and Zhao 1993), and that is why we give its diagnosis here. However, it was not cited in the original description of the genus or in the most recent key to the group ( Betsch and Weiner 2009; Zeppelini et al. 2018). Without the confirmation of the presence of trochanters I and II spines and many other relevant morphological traits (see Table 2 ), the positioning of S. spinimucronata within Szeptyckitheca is doubtful, and we considered it as a species inquirenda.

Habitat.

Specimens were found in a coniferous forest of Cryptomeria fortunei ( Itoh and Zhao 1993).

Known distribution.

China ( Itoh and Zhao 1993).