Abstract
The genus Baezia Alonso-Zarazaga & García, 1999 is endemic to the Canary Islands, where four species were known to date. Based on morphological evidence, three new species of Baezia are described in this study: Baezia aranfaybo García & López, sp. nov. from El Hierro island, and Baezia madai García & Oromí sp. nov. and Baezia tizziri García & Andújar, sp. nov. from La Palma island. Notes on their biology, habitat, and distribution are presented. The number of taxa in this endemic Canarian genus increases to seven eyeless species. One species has been reported from the soil (endogean environment), with the other six associated with caves and the mesovoid shallow substratum (hypogean or subterranean environment). Frequent association with the presence of roots suggests that species of Baezia may inhabit the continuum represented by the endogean and hypogean environments. Identification key to the seven species are provided.
Highlights
The volcanic terrains of the Canary Islands harbour a wide variety of subterranean environments (= hypogean sensu Giachino and Vailati 2010), most of them suitable for the establishment of fauna adapted to an underground lifestyle (Oromí 2004b)
Baezia and Oromia are Canarian endemic genera, with eyeless species living in lava tubes and the MSS, except for Baezia litoralis Alonso-Zarazaga & García, 1999, found under stones partly embedded in the soil in Tenerife (García et al 2007)
The purpose of the present paper is to describe these three new species and provide morphological identification keys to all seven known species of the genus
Summary
The volcanic terrains of the Canary Islands harbour a wide variety of subterranean environments (= hypogean sensu Giachino and Vailati 2010), most of them suitable for the establishment of fauna adapted to an underground lifestyle (Oromí 2004b). The small area of the Canary archipelago as a whole and its inherent fragmentation into islands had been considered a limiting factor for the establishment of a rich subterranean fauna (Leleup and Leleup 1970). These islands are rated as the richest volcanic region in troglobiont invertebrates worldwide, with more than 160 described species, followed by the Hawaiian Islands (80), Undara Cave in Australia (23), Azores (20), and Galapagos (14) (Peck and Finston 1993; Borges et al 2012; Naranjo et al 2020, and own unpublished data). The genus Baezia is closely related to Oromia (Alonso-Zarazaga & García, 1999), they are easy to be distinguished mainly because Baezia has: a smaller body size (2.5–3.8 mm) (4–6.4 in Oromia); a shorter and more robust rostrum (larger and narrower in Oromia); a rostrum dorsally strongly striated (dorsally strongly punctated in Oromia); a pronotum without longitudinal keels or with only a slight median keel (with obvious median and/or lateral longitudinal keels in Oromia); abdominal sternites I and II (hidden under metacoxae) not united to the metaventrite and the elytra (they are united to the metaventrite and the elytra in Oromia); metapleurosternal suture absent (present in Oromia)
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