Zygonopus krekeleri Causey

Shear, William A., 2010, 2385, Zootaxa 2385, pp. 1-62 : 33-34

Zygonopus krekeleri Causey

Fig. 42, Map 3

Zygonopus krekeleri Causey 1960: 79 , figs. 10, 11.

Types: Male holotype ( AMNH) and male and female paratypes ( FSCA) from Alpena Cave No. 1, Alpena, Randolph Co., West Virginia .

Diagnosis: The gonopods are highly distinctive, as the lateral branch of the angiocoxite is suppressed and and the inner side of the coxite is drawn up into a strong, coarsely roughened lobe.

Etymology: Named by Causey for Carl H. Krekeler, a coleopterist who supplied her with specimens for her revision.

Male paratype: Length, 8.5 mm, width, 0.76 mm. Unpigmented, eyeless. Pregonopodal legs as described for Z. whitei . Gonopods ( Fig. 42) robust; trichomes on anterior face of coxa suppressed, few in number; angiocoxite unbranched, 3 lateral coxal setae at base; median angle of coxite drawn into large, roughened subquadrate lobe; telopodite globose-quadrate, almost entirely concealing fimbriate branch. Ninth legpair as usual, tenth and eleventh legpairs with coxal glands.

Female paratype: Length, 9.1 mm, width, 0.79 mm. Nonsexual characters as in male.

Distribution: See Map 3 for selected records. Each of the following records verified by the examination of at least one male. WEST VIRGINIA: Randolph Co.: Alpena Cave No. 1, Alpena, 23 July 1957, C. Krekeler (AMNH, FSCA); Bowden Cave No. 1, 23 August 1966, J. Holsinger (FSCA); Crawford Cave, 23 July 1957, C. Krekeler (FSCA).

Literature Records: Causey (1960) reports krekeleri from Bennett and Mill Run Caves in southern Tucker Co., WEST VIRGINIA. I did not find these specimens and the records (also mapped in Fong et al. 2007) are well south of the core distribution of the species. Fong et al. (2007) report krekeleri from Bonner Mountain Cave, Stewart Run Cave, and Stony Run Cave, Randoph Co., WEST VIRGINIA, and from Bob White Cave and Red Run Cave, Tucker Co., WEST VIRGINIA. I have not seen these specimens but the localities are tightly clustered in the core area for the species; they are mapped in Fong et al. (2007). FSCA has a sample from Dyer’s Cave, Hardy Co., WEST VIRGINIA, that Causey had determined as krekeleri , but the male no longer has gonopods (they were slide-mounted and the slide has disappeared). This is a very unlikely record, around 40 miles east of the others, in the Potomac drainage on the west flank of Shenandoah Mountain, and within the distribution of Z. whitei , which is now known from Grant Co. (see above). The record should be checked.

Notes: Zygonopus krekeleri is a distinctive species found in the upper reaches of the Cheat River drainage and not closely related to its three congeners. More collecting is needed in Randolph and Tucker counties to delineate the distribution of Z. krekeleri .