New species of the genus Philotella Najt amp; Weiner, 1985 (Collembola, Neanuridae, Pseudachorutinae) from the Russian Far East.

Abstract

Eight new species of the genus Philotella, i.e. P. pax sp. nov., P. oligotricha sp. nov., P. cedrina sp. nov., P. aliniensis sp. nov., P. amurica sp. nov., P. alba sp. nov., P. pallida sp. nov., and P. caeca sp. nov., are described based on extensive ecological samplings conducted by specialists of the Department of Zoology and Ecology, Moscow State Pedagogical University, in various parts of the Russian Far East. Three previously known species were transferred from the genus Micranurida to Philotella to become P. grana (Lee Kim, 1984) comb. nov., P. porcella (Fjellberg, 1985) comb. nov. and P. japonica (Tamura, 1998) comb. nov. The main diagnostic features of the genus and its differences from the most similar genera of the subfamily Pseudachorutinae are discussed, and a regional key for identifying the Eastern Palearctic species of the genus is given.