Friesea major, Kroua, Salah Hamra, Jordana, Rafael & Deharveng, Louis, 2009

Kroua, Salah Hamra, Jordana, Rafael & Deharveng, Louis, 2009, A new Friesea of the mirabilis- group from Algeria (Collembola: Neanuridae: Frieseinae), Zootaxa 2074, pp. 65-68 : 65-67

Friesea major sp. nov.

Figs 1–9 , Tab. 1

Description. Habitus classical of the genus ( Fig. 1 ). Body length: 1-1.2 mm. Body color: greyish violet to bluish.

Chaeta morphology ( Fig. 1 ). Dorsal clothing of rather strong, long and pointed ordinary chaetae, serrated on posterior tergites ( Fig. 2 ). Chaetae of various length (longest/shortest = 3), with all intermediates between macrochaetae and mesochaetae. Ventral chaetae smooth and acuminate. S-chaetae on tergites slighly shorter (Abd. IV–V) to slightly longer (Th. II–Abd. III) than nearby ordinary chaetae ( Fig. 1 ).

8+8 subequal eyes. Labium ( Fig. 3 ) and mouthparts classical of the genus. Labrum with 5,5,2 chaetae arranged as in the figure of Massoud (1967: 127), with two prelabral chaetae close to the axis (one in a single specimen) ( Fig. 4 ). Seven chaetae on Ant. I, thirteen on Ant. II. Ant. III organ with S2 and S5 rather short and moderatly thickened. Ant. IV with apical bulb simple, 6 feebly thickened, short, subequal S-chaetae and a minute ms microchaeta ( Fig. 5 ).

Frequent chaetotaxic asymmetries on tergites and sternites ( Figs 1, 6 ). Th. I, II, III with respectively 4, 10 + 2S + ms, 9 + 2S chaetae. Chaetae a2 often present on Abd. V, sometimes asymmetrically ( Fig. 1 ), rarely absent. Three strong anal spines on strong papillae ( Fig. 7 ).

Leg chaetotaxy as in Fig. 8 and Tab. 1 . Chaeta M absent on Tita, which have 4–5 weakly clavate tenent hairs in the distal row. Claw without inner tooth.

Ventral tube with 4+4 chaetae. Furca strongly reduced. Dentes as two small spherical tubercles, each with 3 microchaetae ( Fig. 9 ). No mucro. Tenaculum with a single tooth.

Type locality. Algeria, Constantinois, Edough massif, Fontaine romaine, 750 m.

Type material. Holotype male and 28 paratypes, February 2006, Salah Hamra Kroua leg. (sample # ALG-HK0602/ 5); 5 paratypes, 22.i.2001, Salah Hamra Kroua leg. (sample # ALG-HK01/ED03, ALG-HK01/ED06, ALG-HK01/ ED10); 7 paratypes, February 2004, Salah Hamra Kroua leg. (sample # ALG-HK04/ED1, ALG-HK04/ED2); 2 paratypes, 18.i.2005, litter of Quercus faginea forest, Salah Hamra Kroua leg. (sample # ALG-HK0501/EDlcz6). Holotype and 16 paratypes deposited in MNHN, 12 paratypes in MZNA, 14 paratypes in LBEA.

Etymology. After the large size of the species compared to its close relative Friesea truncata .

Discussion. Friesea major sp. nov. is very similar to the widespread species Friesea truncata Cassagnau, 1958 , and to the mediterranean species F. oligorhopala Caroli, 1914 sensu Jordana et al. (1997) . F. ma jo r sp. nov. differs from both species by the frequent presence of chaeta a2 (versus absence) on Abd.V and a single tooth (versus two teeth) on tenaculum. F. m a j o r sp. nov. and F. oligorhopala are distinctly longer than F. tr un cat a, and their dorsal ordinary chaetae on last abdominal tergites are serrated, while they are usually smooth in F. truncata . Claw is untoothed in F. m a j o r sp. nov., like in most populations of F. truncata , while it has a strong tooth in F. oligorhopala . Both F. m a j o r sp. nov. and F. truncata have 18,18,17 tibiotarsal chaetae (A4 and A5 present), while F. oligorhopala has 17, 17,16 tibiotarsal chaetae (one A4/5 chaeta present).

Body size of Friesea truncata sensu Jordana et al. (1997) were measured on specimens of two populations from Asturias ( Spain, 10 specimens) and Gard department ( France, 10 specimens); they ranged respectively from 0.57 to 0.98 mm (mean 0.73) and from 0.66 to 0.87 (mean 0.76), in agreement with the range 0.5 to 0.9 mm given in Jordana et al. (1997), i.e. always smaller than F. m a j o r sp. nov. F. oligorhopala body size is 1.55 mm ( Caroli 1914), or 1-1.4 mm long ( Jordana et al. 1997), i.e. as long as or longer than F. m a j o r sp. nov.

Though F. truncata always lacks a2 on Abd. V, its presence in F. m ajo r sp. nov. was inconstant, with frequent asymmetries, and cannot be used as diagnostic.

Conversely, the single tenacular tooth of F. m a j o r sp. nov. was observed in all examined specimens. F. truncata ( Jordana et al. 1997) and F. oligorhopala ( Caroli 1914; Cassagnau 1958) both have two tenacular teeth. No variation was observed in the specimens of the two populations cited above. Two tenacular teeth are also given for all species of the genus Friesea which have, like F. m a j o r sp. nov., 3 anal spines, 8+8 eyes and 3 chaetae on dens, without polymorphism recorded in the literature for this character. The presence of a single tenacular tooth is therefore the best diagnostic character of F. ma jo r sp. nov.

Friesea major sp. nov. seems to be abundant in the Edough massif. F. oligorhopala , recorded from the surrounding of this mountain by Cassagnau (1963), may actually be the new species described here. The citation of F. oligorhopala from Morocco by Thibaud & Massoud (1980) is confirmed here by the examination of their material.

Figures

FIGURES 1 – 9. Friesea major sp. nov.: 1, dorsal chaetotaxy (S: S-chaetae); 2, dorsal ordinary chaeta of Abd. VI; 3, labium and four distal chaetae of the labrum; 4, labrum and prelabral chaetae; 5, right antenna in dorsal view (1 to 4, 7, 8: thickened S-chaetae; ms: S-microchaeta; i: chaeta i; large « mou » chaetae of Ant. IV are represented by their sockets); 6, abdominal sternite chaetotaxy; 7, Abd. V – VI in dorso-lateral view; 8, pretarsus, tibiotarsus and femur of leg II; 9, furcal vestige.

Tables

TABLE 1. Friesea major sp. nov.: chaetotaxy of legs.

	Leg I	Leg II	Leg III
Tibiotarsus	18	18	17
Femur	12 (?)	11	10
Trochanter	5	5	5
Coxa	3	8	7
Subcoxa 2	0	2	2
Subcoxa 1	1	2	2