Tyrannoseira gladiata Zeppelini & Lima, 2012, sp. nov.

Tyrannoseira gladiata sp. nov.

Figs 1–18, Tables 1 & 2

Type material. Brazil: Paraíba, Araruna, State Park Pedra da Boca, 21.V.2011, D. D. Silva Coll., holotype male, 11 paratypes (3 male, 8 female) same data as Holotype, deposited at Museu Nacional, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (CM/ MNRJ #2294).

Etymology. The species was named as reference to the shape of the spine-like setae on first tibiotarsus of adult males, which resemble the ancient roman sword.

Distribution. The species is known only from type locality, Good’s biogeographic zone 27 (Good 1974).

Habitat. Tyrannoseira gladiata sp. nov. is found in a region transitioning from Atlantic Forest, a semideciduous wet forest, to Caatinga, semi-arid xeromorphic savanna, this transitional vegetation and elevated landscape is called “ Brejo de Altitude”. The whole area is an elevation that borders the littoral flat. The climate of the area is “ As ”(Koeppen 1948; Kottek et al. 2006), tropical hot (annual average over 18C) with dry summer (less than 60mm at least two months along the summer season) and the vegetation is composed of medium sized trees mixed with areas of typical Caatinga forest (Beltrão e t al. 2005). The individuals live on the topsoil and leaf litter along the margins of patches of open rock. The animals alternate activities in both parts of the habitat. Early in the morning they are less active and stand for sometime or move slowly on the open rock, as the temperature rises they move around the border between leaf litter and open rock environment. The behavior of this species is very similar to that of T. raptora (Zeppelini & Bellini 2006), foraging and using the armed fore legs to fight for food resources and females (Zeppelini & Bellini 2006; Bellini & Zeppelini 2011), even though no agonistic behavior was observed in field conditions for T. gladiata sp. nov.

Description. Total length of holotype 2.1 mm, body measures shown in Table 1. Habitus typical entomobryid (Fig. 1). Color in alcohol, dark brown all over head, body and coxae, eye patches darker. Legs, furca, Ant I and basal halves of Ant. II–IV whitish yellow (Fig. 1). Brownish rounded scales covering head, thorax, abdomen, legs, antennal segments I and II, and basal half of Ant. III, no scales on Ant. IV. Ventral tube without scales.

Fourth antennal segment not annulated, with a single apical bulb, without pin setae (Fig. 2). Eye patches oval, 8 + 8 lenses, biggest lens B, smallest and subequal lenses G and H, four interocular feathered mesochaetae and one interocular macrochaetae (Fig. 3). Pre-labral and labral setae feathered. Labial triangle seta R not differentiated from other setae, M1–2, R, E1and L1-2, all feathered and subequal in size (Fig. 4).

Prothoracic femur in males strongly broadened, bearing 13 or more stout spines (Figs. 5, 12-14). Prothoracic tibiotarsus in males slender, curved at base, obliquely articulated to femur, bearing one row of 11–13 elongated spine-like setae (Figs 6, 12, 15, 16). Trochanteral organ formed by 16 short setae (Fig. 7). All ungues with four inner teeth, basal teeth paired, two unpaired distal teeth (Fig. 8–10), and with a dorsal tooth on the basal external lamella. Unguiculi lanceolate (Figs 8–10), inner lamella of hind unguiculi with small teeth or weakly serrate. Tenent hair flat, capitate and smooth. Venter of manubrium with 5+5 subapical ciliated setae on a transversal line. Manubrium without spine-like setae. Mucro falcate, without basal spine (Fig. 11). No macrochaeta on first abdominal segment of adults, dorsal macrochaetae of head and body distributed as shown in Fig. 17. Chaetotaxy of the trichobothrial region of Abd. II and III shown in Figure 18. Other characters are listed in Table 2.

Remarks. T. gladiata sp. nov. can be differentiated by the Ant/CD ratio (2.9), which is the highest among the five described species (Table 2), the presence of only two macrochaetae on region A (Christiansen & Bellinger 2000) of Abd. II, the antenna almost as long as the body length, the chaetotaxy of the fields 5 and 6 on posterior dorsal head, 16 setae on metatrochanteral organ and the color pattern. The new species resembles T. diabolica Bellini & Godeiro, 2012 in the number of ventral setae on the manubrial apex.

Four species of the genus Seira are included in Table 2 for comparison, S. mirianae Arlé & Guimarães 1981, S. yemensis Barra 2004, S. andensis Jacquemart 1980 because they share the absence of macrochaetae on Abd. I and S. mantis Zeppelini & Bellini 2006 because of its sexual dimorphism. The species T. raptora, T. bicolorcornuta (Bellini et al. 2009), T. sex Bellini & Zeppelini 2011 and T. diabolica are also compared.