Vol. 63, 2024

(update: 2024.11.12)

The Cryptic Diversity of the Terrestrial Microarthropods, Ptenothrix Börner (Collembola: Dicyrtomidae) from Taiwan: New Species Plus the Lectotype Designation for Ptenothrix denticulata (Folsom, 1899)

Hsin-Ju Cheng^1,§, Bruno Cavalcante Bellini^2,§, Frans Janssens³, Taizo Nakamori⁴, and Chih-Han Chang^1,5,*

¹Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, National Taiwan University, Taipei 10617, Taiwan. *Correspondence: E-mail: chihhanchang@ntu.edu.tw, chihhanchang.ntu@gmail.com (Chang)
E-mail: hsinjucheng.tw@gmail.com (Cheng)
²Department of Botany and Zoology, Biosciences Center, Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN), Natal 59072-970, RN, Brazil. E-mail: entobellini@gmail.com (Bellini)
³Evolutionary Ecology, Department of Biology, University of Antwerp, Groenenborgerlaan 171, 2020 Antwerpen, Belgium. E-mail: frans.janssens@collembola.org (Janssens)
⁴Department of Environment and Natural Sciences, Graduate School of Environment and Information Sciences, Yokohama National University, Yokohama 240-8501, Japan. E-mail: nakamori-taizo-gc@ynu.ac.jp (Nakamori)
⁵Department of Life Science, National Taiwan University, Taipei 10617, Taiwan

lsid:zoobank.org:pub:16537856-6A02-48A7-928B-C8EB5353C0C4
^§HJC and BCB contributed equally to this work.
(Received 3 May 2024 / Accepted 19 July 2024 / Published 12 November 2024)
Communicated by John Wang

This is the first taxonomic study of Collembola in Taiwan integrating morphological and molecular evidence to investigate the Taiwanese species in the genus Ptenothrix Börner. We discovered that specimens previously identified as Ptenothrix denticulata (Folsom, 1899) actually consist of several cryptic species, of which we described two species new to science. Our data revealed that, although these species are remarkably similar to each other, they can be distinguished by color patterns, chaetotaxic characters and DNA barcoding (COI). We also designated one of the syntypes of Ptenothrix denticulata (Folsom, 1899) as its lectotype, and treated Dicyrtoma denticulata (Salmon 1964) as a synonym of Ptenothrix denticulata (Salmon 1964) (syn. nov.). Lastly, our study suggests that the diversity of Collembola in Taiwan is still poorly understood, with a high potential for new studies focusing on these microarthropods.

Key words: Soil fauna, Systematics, Genetic diversity, Phylogeny, Ptenothricinae

Citation: Cheng HJ, Bellini BC, Janssens F, Nakamoriv T, Chang CH. 2024. The cryptic diversity of the terrestrial microarthropods, Ptenothrix Börner (Collembola: Dicyrtomidae) from Taiwan: new species plus the lectotype designation for Ptenothrix denticulata (Folsom, 1899). Zool Stud 63:42. doi:10.6620/ZS.2024.63-42.

Supplementary materials: Table S1