A new species of Entomobrya from Iraq (Collembola, Entomobryidae)

The systematic study of Entomobrya specimens from different museums in the Palaearctic region and material obtained from other collections allowed some new species of the genus to be revealed. Entomobrya iraqensis n. sp. is described from Mosul, Iraq. For the identification and description of the species, the set of characters proposed by Jordana and Baquero (2005) was used

A proposal of characters for taxonomic identification of Entomobrya species (Collembola, Entomobryomorpha), with description of a new species

The species of the genus Entomobrya have bean traditionally identified using colouration. Only some authors have considered a small number of morphological characters, in badly mounted or old specimens, as well as chaetotaxical characters (but not used for species identification). The study of a large series of slides from extensive collections of Entomobrya species with observation of the complete chaetotaxy has demonstrated that specimens with the same colour pattern can have a very different chaetotaxy, which is related with the geographical origin. On the other hand, specimens with similar chaetotaxy but from distant geographical areas maintain the same colour pattern. The present paper proposes a set of both morphological and chaetotaxical characters as a useful tool for the species identification in the genus Entomobrya in connection with the observation of colour pattern. For the selection of this set of characters more than 500 slides from the top-ranking European museums have been studied. Two species of the genus with similar colour pattern but with a different chaetotaxy are used as models for the methodology: E. nivalis (Linnaeus, 1758) and a new species from León (Spain)."By kind permission of Senckenberg Museum für Naturkunde Görlitz; copyright by Senckenberg Görlitz. See also: www.soil-organisms.org

First record of the subfamily Psychodinae (Diptera : Psychodidae) from Ecuador.

This is the first record for the subfamily Psychodinae from Ecuador and a new species belonging to genus Arisemus, A. triconnectus, is described

A disjunct distribution for a new species of Orchesellides (Collembola, Entomobryidae, Orchesellinae)

A new species of Orchesellides is described from material collected in the Valsa n forest (Segovia, Spain), and conserved in the collection of the National Museum of Natural Sciences (MNCN), CSIC, Madrid. The genus was known only from the eastern Palaearctic, Oriental, and Indo-Pacific (Hawaii) regions. This is the first reference for the genus from the western Palaearctic region, creating an interesting disjunct distribution. The value of the morphological characteristics for the identification of the species is discussed

Coecobrya kennethi n. sp. (Collembola, Entomobryomorpha) and presence of Arrhopalites caecus (Tullberg, 1871) from Ana Roiho cave (Maunga Hiva Hiva), Rapa Nui-Easter Island.

Anew species of Coecobrya Yosii, 1956 (Collembola, Entomobryomorpha, Entomobryidae) from a cave in Rapa Nui (Easter Island) is described. The new species can be distinguished from other species of the genus by the following characters: antenna relatively short, less than 4 times the cephalic diagonal; absence of smooth setae on ventral side of tibiotarsus; inner tooth of unguis at more than 1/3 of distance to basal ventral edge; unguiculus outer tooth smaller than the rest of unguiculus; absence of macrochaetae in group 6 on thoracic tergite II; four macrochaetae on central dorsal abdomen IV; smooth setae on manubrium posterior side; and 1+1 smooth setae on posterior face of ventral tube. The species A. caecus is frequently referred in the North hemisphere, and referred too in Australia and New Zealand, but this is the first record to Easter Island. The discovery of this two species resulted from the speleological work that was carried out in the cave Roiho, in the national park of Easter Island, Chile

Redescription of Entomobrya schoetti (Collembola, Entomobryidae, Entomobryinae), third record to the world fauna

Se da una redescripción de Entomobrya schoetti Stach, 1922. Esta especie ha sido encontrada asociada a una plaga de Sminthurus viridis L. sobre alfalfa en Vergalijo (Navarra, España) en el otoño de 1997. Se capturaron 55.430 ejemplares en cinco minutos, pasando 25 veces una bandeja blanca de plástico sobre la parte superior de las plantas de alfalfa. El color de la especie es muy variable y sólo los ejemplares muy pigmentados pueden utilizarse para caracterizar la especie. Se adjunta una tabla con las medias de las medidas más importantes, tomadas de 22 ejemplares adultos. Se ha realizado el dibujo de la distribución dorsal de las macroquetas, así como los dibujos de los patrones de coloración. Se ha realizado la descripción fotográfica a microscopía electrónica de barrido de algunos caracteres. Del análisis del contenido intestinal se deduce que esta especie se alimenta de hongos y podría contribuir a la dispersión de los hongos en los campos de cultivo

Nota sobre la presencia de Sminthurus viridis (Linnaeus, 1758) como plaga de la alfalfa en la ribera del rio Arga (Navarra)

En este trabajo se describe una plagadeSminthurus viridis L. sobre la alfalfa de los campos de la ribera del rio Arga en Navarra. La plaga apareció en el otoño de 1997. Junto a S. viridis apareció, en grandes cantidades, Entomobrya schuetti Stach, 1922. Esta última especie se encontraba alimentándose de los hongos que crecían en las heridas producidas por S. viridis en las hojas de la alfalfa. Se contaron los individuos de ambas especies en un 10% de la muestra. La proporción de ambas es del 26% (S. viridis) y 74% (E. schoetti) respectivamente. Se ha estimado la población en uno de los campos estudiados en unos 2.000 ejemplares por planta de alfalfa