Abstract
The morphological ontogeny of Melanozetes avachai n. sp. from Kamchatka Peninsula (Russia) is described and illustrated. The juveniles of this species have a humeral organ and a humeral macrosclerite, which occur in most Sphaerozetinae (Ceratozetidae), but in the larva seta c1 inserts on microsclerite, rather than on the humeral macrosclerite, which is unique in Melanozetes. The larva lacks the gastronotal shield and the gastronotal setae are inserted on microsclerites, which is unique in Melanozetes; other species have these setae inserted on the gastronotal shield. The juveniles of M. avachai also differ from congeners by the length and shape of some gastronotal setae. All instars of M. avachai have femora I and II uniquely oval in cross section; in all other species of Melanozetes at least femur II is flattened, with a ventral carina. The adult of M. avachai differs from congeners by its larger body size and longer prodorsal seta le. The translamella is variable in M. avachai; usually it is absent, but may be incomplete, or present. The diagnosis of Melanozetes is modified and enlarged with the morphological characters of juveniles.
Highlights
Melanozetes Hull, 1916 is a well defined genus, if we limit the number of notogastral setae of the adults to 14 pairs, including c2 and c3 (Seniczak et al 2015)
The aim of this paper is to propose M. avachai n. sp. based on a collection from Kamchatka, and to describe and illustrate its morphological ontogeny, and compare it and morphology of the adult with that of other species of Melanozetes
We compare the morphological ontogeny of M. avachai n. sp. with that of other species of Melanozetes with known ontogeny, namely M. azoricus investigated by Seniczak et al (2015), M. meridianus and M. mollicomus studied by Seniczak (1989a) and M. interruptus investigated by Seniczak (1993d)
Summary
Melanozetes Hull, 1916 is a well defined genus, if we limit the number of notogastral setae of the adults to 14 pairs, including c2 and c3 (Seniczak et al 2015). This genus is not rich in species. Based on the catalogue of Norton and Ermilov (2014) and the publication of Seniczak et al (2015), the full ontogeny of only four species of this genus is known: (1) Melanozetes azoricus: Seniczak et al (2015) described and illustrated the morphological ontogeny, including leg setae and solenidia. Integument — Posterior part of prodorsum, central part of notogaster and ventral plate microporose, with light dots (Figure 1B), marginal parts of notogaster and pteromorphs microporose and reticulate (Figure 1C), other parts of body microporose
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