Two new dipluran species unearthed from subterranean habitats of the Canary Islands (Arthropoda, Hexapoda, Entognatha)

By

Sendra, Alberto
Lopez, Heriberto
Selfa, Jesús
Oromí, Pedro

Type

Article

Date of Publication

2020

Original Publication

Subterranean Biology

Volume

34

Pages

39--59

Subjects

Campodeidae , cave-adapted fauna , DNA barcoding , Mesovoid Shallow Substratum , new species , Remycampa , Spaniocampa

Contributed by

Pensoft Publishers

Language

English

Published by

Sofia, Bulgaria Pensoft Publishers

Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3897/subtbiol.34.50231

 

Abstract

Two new dipluran species of the family Campodeidae have been unearthed in the Canary Islands. Remycampa herbanicasp. nov. was found in a highly threatened lava tube on Fuerteventura island. It is related to the soil-dwelling northwest African Remycampa launeyi that also inhabits four of the Canary Islands. The two known Remycampa species are characterized by a torsion of the labial palps. They differ chiefly in the distribution of macrosetae and in the features of cave adaptation of R. herbanica, i.e. elongation of body and appendages, and a higher number of olfactory chemoreceptors with a coniform shape unique within campodeids. Spaniocampa relictasp. nov. was collected in the mesovoid shallow substratum (MSS) and has been assigned to a formerly monotypic genus that includes the soil-dwelling Spaniocampa prima from the Republic of Guinea. The two species differ in the number of abdominal macrosetae. Females of S. relictasp. nov. have small setae arranged in groups along the posterior border of the first urosternite. These structures of unknown function have never been described in other campodeid species. Sequencing the COI barcode region of R. herbanica has been produced but it proved insufficient to identify closest relatives. The two new hexapods from subterranean habitats raise the Canarian campodeid fauna to six species. Five of them are living in soil and/or MSS, whereas the cave-adapted R. herbanica is known only from a single, particularly endangered lava tube distant from other caves.