Campylothorax Schött, 1893

Felipe N. Soto-Adames, 2016, Chaetotaxy of first-instar Campylothorax sabanus (Wray), and description of three new Campylothorax species from Hispaniola (Collembola, Paronellidae), Journal of Natural History 50 (25), pp. 1583-1612 : 1592-1593

Genus Campylothorax Schött, 1893

Head, body and ventral face of furcula covered with hyaline scales; metathorax humped, longer than mesothorax; mucro unique, cylindrical with one basal and four apical teeth; first antennal segment longer than head; fourth abdominal segment with three inner bothriotricha.

Remarks

Traditionally, the main characters used to diagnose species are colour pattern, dorsal chaetotaxy of the fourth abdominal segment and, to some extent, relative size of the mesothoracic hood ( Mitra 1975, 1993). In addition to the traditional diagnostic characters, the species reported here show species-specific variation in the number of dorsal head Mc in series S, number of Mc on Th. 2 and Th. 3, number of lateral micro- and mesochaetae on Abd. 3, number of lateral Mc on Abd. 4, and relative length of mucro. The condition of the material available does not allow a full characterisation of the maxillary lamellae, but at least lamellae 1 and 2 also provide useful diagnostic characters.

In the literature, the unguiculus has been described or illustrated as either lanceolate or truncate, but the diagnostic value of these observations is unclear. In the species considered here most legs have truncate unguiculus, but in all species some individuals have one or more lanceolate unguiculi. A list of discrete diagnostic characters for all adequately described Campylothorax species is presented in Table 2.

As mentioned above, members of the genus show a very homogeneous morphology. To avoid repetition of invariant characters, a full description is provided for C. notidanus sp. nov., whereas for the other three species only diagnostic or otherwise variable characters are listed.