A new species of Strouhaloniscellus Tabacaru, 1993 (Crustacea: Isopoda: Oniscidea) from a cave in Mt Biokovo, Croatia

Abstract

A new species of Strouhaloniscellus (S. biokovoensis) (Trichoniscidae, Haplophthalminae) is described and illustrated from specimens collected at the bottom of a vertical cave in Mt Biokovo, Croatia. The new species is characterised by its small size (2.8 mm long), unpigmented body, absence of eyes, cephalon with three rows of tubercles, pereion with an oblique ridge on the epimera and 2+2 large tubercles on pereionites 1–6 and 1+1 on pereionite 7, pleon narrow with no dorsal ornamentation, male pereiopod 7 with a stout apically rounded seta on carpus, and male pleopod 1 exopod with a quadrangular distal part bent outwards and a rounded lobe on medial margin. Strouhaloniscellus biokovoensis n. sp. represents the second known species of the genus Strouhaloniscellus. The differences with S. anophthalmus (Strouhal) are discussed and an emended diagnosis of the genus Strouhaloniscellus is given.