Lucasius pallidus ( Budde-Lund, 1885 )

Taiti, Stefano & Rossano, Claudia, 2015, Terrestrial isopods from the Oued Laou basin, north-eastern Morocco (Crustacea: Oniscidea), with descriptions of two new genera and seven new species, Journal of Natural History 49 (33), pp. 2067-2138 : 2094-2095

Lucasius pallidus ( Budde-Lund, 1885)

Material examined

5 ♂♂, 2 ♀♀, St. 8, 220 m, leg. S. Taiti and C. Rossano, 28 April 2004 ( MZUF 9484 ) ; 26 ♂♂, 18 ♀♀, 2 juvs, same locality and collectors, 28 September 2005 ( MZUF 9485 ) ; 11 ♂♂, 21 ♀♀, St. 25, under stones in meadow, leg. S. Taiti, 30 April 2004 ( MZUF 9486 ) ; 2 ♀♀, St. 26, cork-oak wood, leg. S. Taiti, 30 April 2004 ( MZUF 9487 ) .

Distribution

Morocco, southern Spain, southern France, Corsica, Sardinia and Tuscany. New record for the Rif region.

Remarks

In Morocco two species of Lucasius have been recorded: L. myrmecophilus Kinahan, 1859 , originally described from Algeria ( Kinahan 1859); and L. pallidus , originally described from southern France, Sicily, southern Spain and Algeria. In Sicily this species was confused with Mica tardus ( Budde-Lund, 1885) and, according to Caruso and Di Maio (1996), it is not present. Achouri et al. (2008c) cite L. myrmecophilus from the Oued Laou basin. The specimens from the same area examined by us definitely fit the description of L. pallidus , but the differences of this species with L. myrmecophilus are still unclear. According to Vandel (1962) and Schmölzer (1965) L. myrmecophilus differs from L. pallidus in having a smooth instead of granulated dorsum, but in the original description by Kinahan (1859) and in the redescription by Budde-Lund (1885, p. 135) it is clearly stated that the dorsum of the body is granulated. Therefore there is a possibility that the two species are synonymous, but a re-examination of the type material of L. myrmecophilus is necessary to confirm this hypothesis.

For diagnostic characters of L. pallidus see Vandel (1962, p. 651, Figure 321).