Collophora Richards

Genus Collophora Richards View in CoL in Delamare-Deboutteville & Massoud, 1964 a

Diagnosis of the genus.

Ant. IV with or without subsegments (up to six subsegments if present). Eyes 4 + 4. Frontal head and dorsal large abdomen without strong spines or other clear spiniform chaetae. Thoracic segmentation marked. Large abdomen composed of Th. II – III and Abd. I – V, bothriotrichum D with a capitated, somewhat leaf-shaped apex, in a large papilla. Neosminthuroid chaeta present on the parafurcal area. Part of circumanal chaetae on females winged and / or thick. Trochanteral organ present in legs II – III, with a roundish alveolus. Tenent hairs or other strongly modified tibiotarsal chaetae absent. Sacs of the ventral tube relatively short, slightly longer than the corpus, and warty. Unguicular filament equal to or longer than the ungues in all legs. Ventral formula of dens reduced, as 3 … 1 from apex to basis. Mucro gutter-like with serrated edges, mucronal chaeta absent (revised and updated from Denis 1933, 1948; Delamare-Deboutteville and Massoud 1964 a, 1964 b; Yosii 1966; Hüther 1967; Richards 1968; Betsch 1980; Bretfeld 1999; Zeppelini and Brito 2013).

Type species.

Arrhopalites quadrioculatus Denis, 1933 .

Remarks.

As the family has only one genus, the diagnosis of Collophoridae is the same as that of Collophora . Many species of the genus have remarkably limited descriptions, as noted by Zeppelini and Brito (2013; see also Table 1 View Table 1 ). Most of them lack males in their type series, but it is not possible to determine whether they are parthenogenetic, as in some Arrhopalites taxa, due to the small number of specimens (up to five) in their type series and the absence of studies on the biology of the genus ( Denis 1933, 1948; Delamare-Deboutteville and Massoud 1964 a, 1964 b; Yosii 1966; Hüther 1967; Richards 1968; Betsch 1980; Zeppelini and Brito 2013).

Hüther (1967) and Denis (1948) noted the difficulties in separating C. quadrioculata Denis, 1933 , from C. subquadrioculata Denis, 1948 . Denis (1948) used the genus diagnostic characters to separate the species, suggesting, for instance, the absence of a capitate bothriotrichum D in C. quadrioculata . However, Richards (1968) stated that this character was present in his revision of the latter species. Due to the lack of many taxonomically informative characters in most of the previous descriptions, such as the detailed chaetotaxy of the anal valves and information about the mouthparts, antennae, and large abdomen (see Table 1 View Table 1 ), most species of the genus require redescription ( Denis 1933, 1948; Richards 1968; Betsch 1980).