Redescription of Porcellio brevicaudatus Brandt, 1833 (Isopoda: Oniscidea); with some notes on other synonyms of Hemilepistus reaumurii (Milne-Edwards, 1840)
Author
Kashani, Ghasem M.
Author
Wägele, Johann-Wolfgang
Author
Schmalfuss, Helmut
text
Zootaxa
2011
2924
63
67
journal article
46607
10.5281/zenodo.206548
d7a39baf-4e88-4a68-ba29-01852fc1d2a8
1175-5326
206548
Porcellio brevicaudatus
Brandt, 1833
Porcellio brevicaudatus
Brandt, 1833
:180
Hemilepistus brevicaudaus
Budde-Lund, 1885
: 159
.—
Brian, 1930
: 446
.
Hemilepistus sottii
Arcangeli, 1932
: 7
.
Hemilepistus rostratus
Arcangeli, 1932
:9
.
Hemilepistus patrizii
Brian, 1932
: 330
.
Material examined.
Male,
lectotype
, here designated, length
11 mm
,
Egypt
,
1820–1824
, leg. Ehrenberg & Hemprich (BMN 7079). Male,
paralectotype
, same data as for
lectotype
(BMN 7079).
Three males,
syntypes
of
Hemilepistus sottii
,
Libya
, Cirenaica, Guarscia,
4 April 1922
, leg. Prof. Silvestri (
MRSNT
Is-370).
Two males,
syntypes
of
Hemilepistus sottii
,
Libya
, Cirenaica, Zavia Mechili, leg. Dr. Festa (
MRSNT
Is-370).
Female with marsupium,
holotype
of
Hemilepistus patrizii
,
Algeria
, “presso Zuetina”,
20 March 1931
, leg.? (
MCSNG
).
Diagnosis.
Cephalothorax with well developed lateral and median lobes. Dorsal surface of cephalothorax and pereion-tergites with several rounded tubercles, more conspicuous on anterior parts. Pleotelson short, triangular, not surpassing uropodal protopodite. Pereiopods 1–2 with brushes of setae on the merus and carpus. Pleopodexopodite 1 subrectangular.
Redescription.
Body elongated, about six times longer than cephalothorax width (fig. 1B). Body length up to
15 mm
.
Cephalothorax
with rounded lateral lobes and well-developed median lobe, tubercles in different sizes on dorsal part (
Fig. 1
A).
Antenna
short, compared with other species of
Porcellio
, not surpassing second pereion-tergite, first flagellar article longer than the second (
Fig. 1
C).
Pereion-tergites
with tubercles, well developed on the first pereionite and decreasing in size on posterior tergites, two marked larger tubercles on the median portion of each pereion-tergite (
Fig. 1
A).
FIGURE 1.
Porcellio brevicaudatus
, syntypes of
Hemilepistus sottii
, male from Libya, Zavia Mechili. A, cephalothorax and pereion-tergites 1–4; B, dorsal view; C, antenna; D, pereiopod 1; E, pereiopod 2; F, pereiopod 3; G, pereiopod 7. Scale = 2 mm for A and B; 0.5 mm for C–G.
FIGURE 2.
Porcellio brevicaudatus
, syntypes of
Hemilepistus sottii
. A–D, male from Libya, Guarscia. E–G, male from Libya, Zavia Mechili. A, pleopod 1 exopodite; B, pleopod 1 endopodite; C, pleopod 2 exopodite; D, pleopod 2 endopodite; E, pleopod 3 exopodite; F, pleopod 4 exopodite; G, pleopod 5 exopodite. Scale = 0.25 mm for A–D; 0.5 mm for E–G..
Pleon
narrower than pereion.
Telson
triangular, almost 1.5 times as wide as long, with concave margins and rounded apex, not surpassing uropodal protopodite (
Fig. 1
B).
Pereiopods.
Merus and carpus of male pereiopods 1–2 with brushes of trifid setae on sternal margin (
Fig. 1
D– E). Ischium of pereiopod 7 triangular with straight sternal margin (
Fig. 1
G).
Pleopod-exopodites
1–2 with large respiratory organs, which are lacking in the exopodites 3–5 (
Figs. 2
A, C). Pleopod-exopodite 1 subrectangular, with small median posterior lobe. Endopodite 1, see
Fig. 2
B, pleopodexopodites 3–5 as in
Fig. 2
E–G.
Remarks.
This species differs from other species of
Porcellio
by possessing a very narrow body and convex postero-lateral margin of the first pereion-epimeron. Based on the shape of the first male pleopod-exopodite, it is a member of
scaber -obsoletus
-group. Regarding its geographical distribution, this species is the only species of
scaber -obsoletus
-group with a distribution range in northern Africa, which is otherwise populated by the
laevis - hoffmannseggii
-group (see
Schmalfuss 1998
).
Distribution
.
Egypt
,
Algeria
,
Libya
.