Dasilcoferla De Vis & Ueckermann, 2024

Dasilcoferla De Vis & Ueckermann n. gen.

Zoobank: 3AC41C22-6DF1-4C43-AB76-1F070F3A129A

Type species — Pseudopronematulus nadirae Silva, Da-Costa & Ferla, 2017 .

Diagnosis — Adult female with one seta on each of trochanters I and II, six setae on tarsus

II and five on each of tarsi III and IV. Tarsus I with both tectals as well as both prorals not subequal in length. Seta homologous to s absent. Femur IV not divided. Leg chaetotaxy: leg

I – 8 + ω – 3 + φ + κ – 3 – 3 – 1; leg II – 6 + ω – 2 – 3 – 3 – 1; leg III – 5 – 2 – 2 – 2 – 1; leg IV – 5 – 2 –1 – 2 – 0. Empodium and claws absent on leg I, each of other legs with ciliate empodium and two claws, without empodial hooks. Aspidosoma procurved with four pair of setae (bo, ro, la and ex) and opisthosoma 10 pairs of setae (c1, c2, d1, e1, f1, f2, h1, h2, ps2 and ps3), ps1 absent and four pairs of aggenital setae (ag1–ag4) in an atypical distribution with distance ag2–ag2 wider than distance ag4–ag4. Poroidotaxy: ia, im, ip, ih.

Differential diagnosis — This genus resembles Neopronematus Panou, Emmanouel & Kaźmierski, 2000 . It has the same leg chaetotaxy and tubercules on the striae but has 10 opisthosomal setae (setae ps1 lacking) instead of 9 in Neopronematus (setae h2 and ps1 lacking, we interpret as ps1 and ps2 lacking) ( Panou et al. 2000). Furthermore, the position of the ag setae is different and typical ( Figure 17 View Figure 17 ) and the ag3 setae are not forked while in all Neopronematus , except for N. aegeae , ag3 is forked ( Panou et al. 2000 ; Darbemamieh et al. 2015 ; Ahmad-Hosseini et al. 2017).

Remarks — Silva et al. (2017) redefined Pseudopronematulus , reducing the “required” leg setation, so as to fit P. nadirae in the genus. However we stick to the Pronematinae genus definition of André (1980) and amplified above the genus definition of Fan and Li (1992). P. nadirae does not match this definition because it has only six setae on tarsus II (instead of seven) and five setae on each of tarsi III and IV (instead of six). Besides the differences in the leg chaetotaxy, the lengths of the eupathidia of P. nadirae are different, both tectals as well as both prorals not being subequal in length (adaxials shorter than abaxials). Furthermore, the striae have small tubercules which are absent in Pseudopronematulus . The lengths of the eupathidia were not measured in P. acus and P. augrabiensis , but in the drawings of both species, both pairs of tectals and both pairs of prorals are subequal, the former longer than the latter. So, we suppose that this is a characteristic of the genus Pseudopronematulus . In P. nadirae the four distal eupathidia are all of different lengths. The chaetotaxy of P. nadirae does not fit any other genus, so according to André (1980) we create the new genus Dasilcoferla De Vis & Ueckermann n. gen. to accommodate P. nadirae . To assure us about certain structures of the species we studied four paratypes and two newly found specimens in the state of Pará, Brazil and redescribed it below.

Etymology — The genus name is, in honour of the authors of the type species, a combination of letters of the authors’ names (Da Silva, Da-Costa & Ferla).