Rhynchocyrtus Mendonça and Fernandes, 2007

de França, Josemária Silva, Bellini, Bruno Cavalcante, Nunes Godeiro, Nerivânia & Cipola, Nikolas Gioia, 2025, Where does Rhynchocyrtus Mendonça and Fernandes (Collembola, Entomobryidae) fit? A new species, mitogenome and insights into the troubled systematics of Lepidocyrtinae, Arthropod Systematics & Phylogeny 83, pp. 713-736 : 713-736

publication ID	https://doi.org/10.3897/asp.83.e171454
DOI	https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17879337
persistent identifier	https://treatment.plazi.org/id/094EF0DB-5A5C-5B83-9E0C-8C6430AC78EA
treatment provided by	Arthropod Systematics & Phylogeny by Pensoft
scientific name	Rhynchocyrtus Mendonça and Fernandes, 2007
status

Treatment

Genus Rhynchocyrtus Mendonça and Fernandes, 2007 View in CoL

Type species.

Rhynchocyrtus klausi Mendonça and Fernandes, 2007 by original designation.

Diagnosis.

Pigmented springtails. Scales finely ciliate by short interrupted cilia, rounded, oval, slightly truncate or irregular, mostly elongated, present on dorsal and ventral head, dorsal trunk, ventral manubrium and dens. Antennae and collophore scaleless. Antennae shorter than body length (Fig. 2 View Figure 2 ), Ant IV without apical bulb. Eyes 8 + 8 (Fig. 3 E View Figure 3 ). Four smooth prelabral chaetae (Fig. 3 D View Figure 3 ). Mouth cone, mandibles and maxillae elongated, projecting anteriorly as a beak-like mouth (Figs 2 View Figure 2 , 5 View Figure 5 ), maxillae with lobed lamellae (Fig. 4 A View Figure 4 ). Mesonotum ( Th II) slightly projected over head anteriorly (Fig. 2 View Figure 2 ). Dorsal head and trunk macrochaetotaxy reduced, tergal sensilla and microsensilla formulae of Th II – Abd V typical of Lepidocyrtinae , as 1, 1 | 0, 1, 1, +, 3 and 1, 0 | 1, 0, 1, 0, 0, respectively, bothriotricha formula of Abd II – IV as 2, 3, 2 (Figs 6 View Figure 6 , 7 View Figure 7 ). Trochanteral organ underdeveloped (Fig. 9 D View Figure 9 ). Dens dorso-proximal region with a small apically rounded tubercle (Fig. 11 B View Figure 11 ), without spines or other clearly modified chaetae. Mucro short and bidentate, with a basal spine lacking the spinelet (adapted and updated from Mendonça and Fernandes, 2007).

Remarks.

Our new genus diagnosis adds, for the first time, data on tergal sensilla and microsensilla distribution. We also highlight some data, like the absence of spines on dens, which are currently used to determine Lepidocyrtus subgenera ( Cipola et al. 2018). As first noted by Mendonça and Fernandes (2007), Rhynchocyrtus is remarkably similar to the latter genus in many aspects, except for the strongly modified mouthparts. Rhynchocyrtus overall chaetotaxy, including scales morphology and distribution, as well as its reduction of dorsal macrochaetae and tergal sensilla and microsensilla formulae, clearly supports its position among other Lepidocyrtinae ( Szeptycki 1979; Zhang and Deharveng 2015; Cipola et al. 2018; Zhang et al. 2019). Such observation is endorsed by our phylogenetic analyses (see the next topics).

It is likely that many aspects of the body psp distribution pattern of R. klausi matches the one described for the new species, being generic diagnostic features. Even so, in the absence of such data for the first species, the body psp pattern is not listed in our updated genus diagnosis.