Trogolaphysa nigromaculata ( Schött, 1903 ) Nguyen & Soto-Adames, 2018

Nguyen, Minh & Soto-Adames, Felipe N., 2018, Annotated checklist of Afrotropical Trogolaphysa Mills, 1938 (Hexapoda: Collembola: Paronellidae) and description of a new species from Madagascar, Zoosystema 40 (10), pp. 179-196 : 189-190

Trogolaphysa nigromaculata ( Schött, 1903) n. comb.

Paronella nigromaculata Schött, 1903 : IV, VII, pl. 1 fig. 8-11 (Bonge, Cameroon). — Wahlgren 1908: 2, 4, 6-8 (description, material used by Mitra 2002c to describe D. wahlgreni , Meru, Kenya). — Philiptschenko 1926: 192-193 (description, senior synonym of P. fuelleborni, Molo , British East Africa). — Schött 1927: 25, 27-30, pl. II figs 10-15 (redescription and description of variation, key to species, Debundscha, Cameroon). — Handschin 1929: 77: 16, 22-23, fig. 5 (descriptive notes, Ethiopia). — Denis 1933: 267, 268 (key to species, comments on variation reported in literature). — Delamare Debouteville & Paulian 1952: 77 (mention, Ivory Coast). — Salmon 1956: 32-35, figs 88-102 (description, Rwanda, Burundi). — Paclt 1959: 56-58 ( Neophorella dubia as junior synonym of T. nigromaculata, Natal , South Africa); 1967: 142 (record, Tanzania). — Martynova 1961: 848, 854-857, fig. 5-7 (descriptive notes on variation, Ethiopia). — Mitra 2002c: 106, 109, 112 (syntypes deposited at the Swedish Museum of Natural History, Stockholm, descriptive notes on chaetotaxy, comparison with D. whalgreni).

Neophorella dubia Womersley, 1934: 464-465 , fig. 12 (description, synonymyzed by Paclt 1959; Table Mount, Cape Town, South Africa).

Dicranocentruga nigromaculata – Mitra 1992: 212. — Mitra 2002c: 114, pl. I, fig. 1D (photo of slide-mounted syntype).

TYPE LOCALITY. — Bonge , Cameroon.

DISTRIBUTION. — Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, Ethiopia.

REMARKS

The description of Neophorella dubia Womersley, 1934 was based on a single individual collected in Cape Town, South Africa. Neither the original description of the species nor the accompanying figures recall or resemble a paronellid by any stretch of the imagination (habitus isotomid-like, with 3 rd abdominal segment longer than 4 th abdominal segment, dens twice as long as manubrium, scales absent, and mucro with three apical teeth). However, Paclt (1959) studied the holotype and indicated that the claw does resemble that of T. nigromaculata n. comb., and that dental spines are present. Paclt (1959) did not mention the structure of the mucro. Ireson & Greenslade (1990) re-examined the type specimen (and only known individual) of N. dubia and concluded that the species belongs in Tomoceridae Schäffer, 1896 , as originally proposed by Womersley. Additional attempts to find the species at the type locality have been unsuccessful (Janion-Scheepers et al. 2015), but it seems safe to conclude that N. dubia does not belong in Trogolaphysa .

Trogolaphysa nigromaculata n. comb. is transferred to Tro - golaphysa on account of Mitra (2002c), who examined some types (see below) and placed the species in Dicranocentruga, a junior synonym of Trogolahysa (Soto-Adames &Taylor 2013).

Trogolaphysa nigromaculata n. comb. is the most often reported and cited member of the genus in Africa, with putative distribution covering most of the tropical and southern subtropical regions of the continent. The original and subsequent descriptions by Schött (1903, 1927), although relatively extensive, provide few characters useful in distinguishing the widespread populations. The absence of a description of relevant diagnostic characters of the type material has lead authors to consider T. nigromaculata n. comb. a very variable species.

The main diagnostic character of the species is related to the morphology of the unguis, which Schött (1903) described as having three inner teeth. However, samples including individuals with three or four inner ungual teeth was interpreted by various authors as intraspecific variation. Following this interpretation in claw variation the species was reported from Kenya (Whalgren 1908), Ethiopia ( Philiptschenko 1926; Handschin 1929; Martynova 1961), Ivory Coast (Delamare Debouteville & Paulian 1952), Rwanda and Burundi ( Salmon 1956), and Tanzania ( Paclt 1967).

It is unlikely that populations from such distant localities (which cover more than 7000 km) and diverse environmental conditions (from the lowland tropical rain forest of Ivory Coast and Cameroon, to the highland forest of Rwanda and Burundi, and the xeric conditions of Ethiopia) represent the same species. Mitra (2002c) studied some syntypes of T. nigromaculata n. comb. from Cameroon and individuals with three-toothed unguis from Kenya (originally identified as P. nigromaculata by Wahlgren 1908) and found the two populations to be easily distinguishable using head chaetotaxy. Extrapolating from Mitra’s (2002c) observation, it is likely that variation in claw morphology reported in the literature reflects a mixture of species and that T. nigromaculata n. comb. as currently delimited is a species complex.

The abbreviated description that follows is based on the original description by Schött (1903) with a few details of head chaetotaxy reported by Mitra (2002c). The redescription by Schött (1927) is unreliable because the material on which it is based was collected in Debundscha, not in the type locality of Bonge. Schött (1927) reports two color forms, the pale one matching the original description, and a dark one with more extensive blue pigment distributed along the flanks. In addition to differences in color pattern, the unguiculus in the dark form is truncate instead of lanceolate, and one of the inner paired ungual tooth is considerably longer than the other. The dark form is likely an unnamed species ( Mitra 2002c might have been referring to these two forms when he pointed out that Schött’s material from Cameroon and Wahlgren’s material from Kenya includes three species).

The light form of T. nigromaculata n. comb. is characterized by a whitish body, with dark blue pigment on all antennal segments, eye patch and coxae; head dorsally with five paired anterior macrochaetae (A2, A5, M2, S3, S5), paired posterior macrochaeta Pa5 absent; tenet hair somewhat short and spatulate; unguis with three inner teeth, basal teeth inserted on basal half of inner edge, unpaired tooth on distal half; unguiculus lanceolate; mucro square, quadridentate, with basal teeth paired.