Persanura, Mayvan, Mahmood Mehrafroz, Shayanmehr, Masoumeh, Smolis, Adrian & Skarżyński, Dariusz, 2015

Mayvan, Mahmood Mehrafroz, Shayanmehr, Masoumeh, Smolis, Adrian & Skarżyński, Dariusz, 2015, Persanura hyrcanica, a new genus and species of Neanurinae (Collembola: Neanuridae) from Iran, with a key to genera of the tribe Neanurini, Zootaxa 3918 (4), pp. 552-558 : 553

Persanura gen. nov.

( Tab.3 )

Type species: Persanura hyrcanica sp. nov.

Diagnosis. Blue hypodermic pigment present on the body. 3 + 3 darkly pigmented eyes present. Mouth parts reduced, maxilla styliform, mandible strong. Labral chaetotaxy 0/0, 4. Chaetae A on head shorter than chaetae B. Tubercles L and So on head fused, tubercles Af and Cl separated. The line of chaetae Di 2– De 2 crosses the line Di 1– De 1 on head (the cross– type, Deharveng 1983). Tubercles on body well developed. Tubercles Di on abd. V not fused along midline. Cryptopygy present. Tibiotarsal chaetotaxy 19, 19, 18. Claw untoothed.

Etymology. Named after the historical name of Iran, Persia.

Remarks. Three morphological characters, the presence of 3 + 3 pigmented eyes, separateness of tubercles Af and Cl on head, and the arrangement of chaetae Di and De on head of the cross type, place Persanura gen. nov. very close to three genera of the tribe Neanurini : Neanura MacGillivray, 1893 , Kalanura Smolis, 2007 and Xylanura Smolis, 2011. The new genus, however, can be easily distinguished from them by using many characters: the labral chaetotaxy (0/ 0, 4 in Persanura gen. nov., 4/ 2, 4 in the remaining genera), the arrangement of tubercles Dl, So and L on head (in Persanura gen. nov. and Xylanura tubercles L and So fused, but Dl separate, in Kalanura all three lateral tubercles separate, in Neanura So separate but tubercles L and Dl, or a part of Dl fused), the length of chaetae A and B on head (in Neanura chaetae A and B of the same length, in the other genera chaeta A shorter than B), the presence/absence of tubercles on the first thoracic tergum (complete absence in Xylanura, presence or absence of tubercles Di in Neanura , presence in Persanura gen. nov. and Kalanura ), the number of chaetae Di on th. II–III (2 in Persanura gen. nov., 3 in the remaining genera), presence/absence of tubercles Di on abd. I–IV (absent in Xylanura, present in the remaining genera), the arrangement of tubercles Di on abd. V (separate in Persanura gen. nov., fused in Xylanura, separate or fused in Kalanura and Neanura Tab.3 ).