Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 December 2019 | 11(15): 15072–15073

First report of Dicranocentroides indica (Handschin, 1929) (Collembola: Paronellidae) from Odisha, India

Ashirwad Tripathy

Department of Silviculture and Agroforestry, Faculty of Forestry, Birsa Agricultural University, Kanke, Ranchi, Jharkhand, 834006, India.

ashirwadaspire351@gmail.com

doi: https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.532911.15.15072-15073 | ZooBank: urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:71E0C237-A31B-4759-BE8F-777EAF0DA8D4

Editor: A.K. Hazra, Emeritus Scientist, Zoological Survey of India, Kolkata, India. Date of publication: 26 December 2019 (online & print)

Manuscript details: #5329 | Received 09 September 2019 | Final received 16 November 2019 | Finally accepted 17 November 2019

Citation: Tripathy, A. (2019). First report of Dicranocentroides indica (Handschin, 1929) (Collembola: Paronellidae) from Odisha, India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 11(15): 15072–15073. https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.5329.11.15.15072-15073

Copyright: © Tripathy 2019. Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. JoTT allows unrestricted use, reproduction, and distribution of this article in any medium by adequate credit to the author(s) and the source of publication.

Funding: None.

Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.

Acknowledgements: I wish to extend my gratitude to Dr. Gurupada Mandal, Scientist D, Apterygota Section, Zoological Survey of India for correct identification of the specimens. Also, I would like to thank Dr. Manoj Kumar Tripathy, Professor Entomology, Department of Natural Resource Management, College of Forestry, OUAT, Bhubaneswar, Odisha for constant support throughout the manuscript process.

The Collembola are small, entognathous, wingless hexapods which poses a spring like jumping organ under the fourth abdominal segment known as furcula due to which they are called springtails. The presence of antennae and absence of cerci distinguishes it from other entognathous hexapods—Protura (with antennae and cerci absent) and the Diplura (with antennae and cerci or pincers present).

There are 9,037 described species of Collembola present worldwide (Bellinger et al. 2019). In India the collembolan fauna constitutes about 342 species of 113 genera belonging to 20 families in which the family Paronellidae consists of 69 species of 15 genera (Mandal 2018). The member of the subfamily Paronellinae Borner distinguished from other entomobryids by straight unringed dentes lacking spines but with terminal bladder like projection with a short and blunt mucro which is quite different from other entomobryids (Mandal & Suman 2016). In the subfamily Paronellinae the genus Dicranocentroides consists of five species in India (Hazra & Mandal 2015) and 21 species in the world (Bellinger et al. 2019).

The earlier distribution of the species Dicranocentroides indica Handschin in India was from Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Chattishgarh (Mandal 2018). Here, the first report details and description of Dicranocentroides indica was made from Sundargarh, Odisha (Figure 1).

Systematic Accounts (As per Mandal & Suman 2016)

Family: Paronellidae Borner, 1913

Subfamily: Paronellinae Borner, 1913

Genus: Dicranocentroides Imms, 1912

Species: Dicranocentroides indica Handschin, 1929

Materials examined: ENT/225/2018, Z.S.I. Lot No. 89/2018, 3 exs, 9.xii.2018, 21.763⁰N, 85.111⁰E, elevation 152m, Khandadhar Waterfall, Sundargarh, Odisha, India (Image 1), coll. Ashirwad Tripathy.

Diagonistic Characters: Colouration: Whole body golden brown in colour with faint purple blue pigment. The antennal segment I, II and III with a distinct distal bluish ring and IV mostly with bluish pigment. Legs with dark brown pigment; furca with diffused blue pigment. Clothing: Body covered with scales, cervix and anterior margin of II thoracic segment is covered with a collar of acuminate setae; macrachaetae obliquely truncated on II, III thoracic segment and I, II and III abdominal segments. At the posteriomedial part the segment IV, V and VI contains acuminate setae. Head: Two dark ocellar field, each having eight ocelli in two longitudinal parallel rows. Antennal segment I and II were stouter; segment IV superficially annulated, apical sense knobs not distinct. Thorax: Relative length index of segments II:III :: 12:9, legs similar; unguis with paired basal and medial unpaired teeth, unguiculus lanceolate in shape; tenant hair long narrow and clavate. Abdomen: long ventral tube with protrusible vesicle retracted. Manubrium: Mucrodens 22:35, short mucro quadrangular with six striated teeth (Figure 2).

Remarks: Handschin (1929) first described this species in Aphysa genus from Europe. In course of revision of Indian collembola fauna, Mitra (1975) transferred the generic status to Dicranocentroides on the basis of the character of the genus present in the insect.

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References

Bellinger, P.F., K.A. Christiansen & F. Janssens (2019). Checklist of world Collembola. www.collembola.org (Accessed on 16 December 2019).

Hazra, A.K. & G.P. Mandal (2015). A new species of Dicranocentroides (Collembolla: Paronellidae) from India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 7(9): 7547-7551. https://doi.org/10.11609/JoTT.o3584.7547-51

Mandal, G.P. & K.K. Suman (2016). First record of collembola (Hexapoda) from Chhattisgarh, India. Records Zoological Survey of India 116(Part-1): 35–39.

Mandal, G.P. (2018). Collembola of India - an updated checklist. Halteres 9: 116–130.