Hyleoglomeris dracosphaera Likhitrakarn, 2024

Hyleoglomeris dracosphaera Likhitrakarn View in CoL ,

Sutcharit & Panha, sp. n.

Figs 3, 4

Holotype. ♂ ( CUMZ-GLO001 ), Thailand, Phitsanulok Province, Noen Maprang District, near Tham Pha Ta Phon non-hunting area, elev. ca. 50 m a.m.s.l., 16°30’58“N 100°39’29”E, 17/08/2020, leg. P. Jirapatrasilp. GoogleMaps

Paratypes. 33 ♂♂, 44 ♀♀ ( CUMZ-GLO001 ) , 3 ♂♂, 6 ♀♀ ( MUC-GLO001 ) , same locality, together with holotype ; 13 ♂♂, 20 ♀♀ ( CUMZ-GLO035 ) , 5 ♂♂, 5 ♀♀ ( MUC-GLO0035 ) , same locality, 10/08/2022, leg. N. Likhitrakarn and P. Poolprasert.

Name. To emphasize the orange body which, when rolled up into a sphere, resembles Dragon Balls, the magical artifacts in the Japanese manga and anime series Dragon Ball; adjective in feminine gender.

Diagnosis. Differs from other species of Hyleoglomeris by the remarkable monochromatic orange body (fig. 3A–D, F, G, J). Additionally characterized by the presence of prominent femoral (fp) and tibial (tp) processes on the telopods, both of large size and triangular shape, in combination with a suboval, sizable, and rounded central lobe of the telopod syncoxite which, however, does not surpass the height of the syncoxite horns (sh) (fig. 4D, E).

Description. Body length of unrolled holotype, 5.8 mm, width 3.3 mm. Body length of unrolled paratypes, 4.2–6.9 mm (♂),

4.3–7.2 mm (♀), width 2.7–3.7 (♂) and 3.1– 3.9 mm (♀).

Colour of live animals (fig. 3A–F). Body orange, with thin translucent bands at both lateral and caudal edges of all terga, including collum, thoracic and anal shields; width of bands approximately 1/5–1/6 times the height of each tergum. Head and antennae yellow-orange to rust-orange, only labrum and Tömösváry’s organs pale orange. Venter and legs yellow-orange to whitish. Colour faded after three years of preservation in alcohol (fig. 3G–J), body of preserved specimens pale tangerine to burnt orange, with wide translucent bands at both lateral and caudal edges of all terga, orange in central area of each tergum being partly faded (fig. 3G, J); head and antennae rust-orange to pale orange; venter and legs pale yellow-orange to whitish.

Labrum sparsely setose (fig. 3H). Gnathochilarium with 2 + 2 palps of similar length. Eyes blackish, with 6(7)+1 ommatidia, cornea very convex and translucent. Antennae with four evident apical cones, antennomere 6 approximately 1.6–1.9 times as long as its height (fig. 3E, H). Tömösváry organ typical, horseshoe-shaped, oblong-oval, elongated, approximately 1.9–2.2 times longer than its width (fig. 3H).

Collum normal, with two transverse striae. Thoracic shield with a small hyposchism field not projecting behind tergal margin (fig. 3J). Striae 9–11 mostly superficial, lower 3–4 lying above schism, one level to schism, 5–6 below schism, 6–9 complete, crossing the dorsum (fig. 3J). Terga 3 and 4 broad and rounded laterally (fig. 3J). Following terga in front of pygidium faintly concave medially at caudal edge and with two or three striae starting above lateral edge, first stria sometimes fading away mid-dorsally. Pygidium faintly concave medially at caudal edge. (fig. 3G).

♂ legs 17 (fig. 4A, B) simple, rather strongly reduced, with a medium-sized to high, often rounded coxal lobe (cxl). Telopodites with four segments.

♂ legs 18 (fig. 4C) simple, slightly reduced, lacking noticeable outgrowths. Syncoxite membranous, with a simple, small, narrow, ogival syncoxite notch (sn). Telopodites with four segments.

Telopods (= ♂ legs 19) (fig. 4D–F) with a large, broad, rounded, suboval syncoxite lobe (sl), flanked by two long, spiniform, obliquely truncate, setose syncoxite horns (sh), these being slightly higher than syncoxite lobe (fig. 3D–F). Telopodite 4-segmented, with a spine apically. Prefemur (fig. 3D) subrectangular, with a prominent, elongated, robust, tuberculiform, distal prefemoral trichostele (pft); in anterior view with a rounded tip, either equal to or slightly surpassing distal boundary of femur. Femur (fig. 4D, E) subtrapezoidal, with a stout, relatively short femoral trichostele (ft) on anterior side, extending apically to approximately 1/2–3/4 the length of prefemoral trichostele (pft), and in anterior view with a rounded subtriangular femoral process (fp) curved anterolaterally and gently tapering into an acuminate tip pointing distally (fig. 4E). Tibia relatively clearly elongated, tapering gently distally and curved basad towards femoral process, with a large, subtriangular, distolateral tibial process (tp) faintly curved mesad (fig. 4D, E). Tarsus the smallest segment, subcylindrical, moderately sigmoid, strongly curved, narrowly rounded at apex, with a robust and small terminal seta (fig. 4D).

DNA barcode. The distinction in the molecular data strongly supports the validity of this species (1 bpp for BI and 100% for ML; fig. 1). The species that seems to be the closest to Hyleoglomeris dracosphaera sp. n. is H. hongkhraiensis , with an average interspecific COI divergence of 9.14% (table 2).

Remarks. The newly discovered species shows an outstanding orange live coloration. The bright orange colour observed in this species is probably an aposematic characteristic, as reported for some glomerids (Levi, 1964) and paradoxosomatids ( Enghoff et al., 2007; Srisonchai et al., 2018).