Abstract
After the examination of a large collection of Oniscidea from caves in the Brazilian states of Bahia, Minas Gerais, Pará, Sergipe and São Paulo, 12 species were recognized in the families Philosciidae and Scleropactidae. Four new species are described: Alboscia jotajota sp. nov. from the Açungui group; Androdeloscia akuanduba sp. nov. and Amazoniscus spica sp. nov. from the Carajás Formation; and Metaprosekia igatuensis sp. nov. from the Quadrilátero Ferrífero karst region. In addition, Atlantoscia inflata, Benthana longicornis, B. olfersii, B. picta and Paratlantoscia rubromarginata (Philosciidae) are recorded from Brazilian caves for the first time; and Benthana iporangensis, B. taeniata and Circoniscus bezzii (Scleropactidae) have the knowledge of their distribution extended to cave habitats.
Highlights
South America comprises twelve countries and four dependencies, with approximately 17.8 million km2
Eyes reduced to rudimentary ommatidia, distal article of antennula with six lateral aesthetascs plus apical pair and male pleopod 1 endopod slightly longer than exopod, with short and thickset distal portion. This new species is named after Joaquim Justino dos Santos, known asJota Jota, who discovered several caves in the Alto Ribeira karst area and was a fantastic guide at Parque Estadual Turístico do Alto Ribeira (PETAR)
The diversity of the subterranean Oniscidea from Brazilian caves has been recorded in many contributions (e.g., Souza et al 2006, 2010, 2015; Ferreira et al 2010, 2015; Campos-Filho & Araujo 2011; CamposFilho et al 2014, 2015b, 2016, 2017b, 2017c, 2019; Gallão & Bichuette 2015, 2018; Silva & Ferreira 2015; Pellegrini & Ferreira 2016; Trajano et al 2016; Bastos-Pereira et al 2017; Fernandes et al 2018, 2019; Bichuette et al 2019)
Summary
South America comprises twelve countries and four dependencies, with approximately 17.8 million km2 Despite this large extension, only 2% of its territory has suitable lithology for the development of karstic systems (Auler 2004, 2017). In the 19 karst areas of Brazil ca 18 000 caves are presently known (18% of the total estimated cave number, ca 100 000) (Auler 2002; CECAV 2015; Rubbioli et al 2019). Most of these caves occur in carbonatic rocks, where the largest subterranean systems have been developed, and some in siliciclastic rocks. More than 3700 species in 38 families are known worldwide (Javidkar et al 2015; Sfenthourakis & Taiti 2015)
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