Center for Systematic Entomology, Gainesville, Florida
Date of this Version
March 2002
Abstract
Previous treatments of the east-Nearctic spirobolid genus Narceus Rafinesque have overlooked the name, N. woodruffi Causey. The holotype is lost, but examinations of a non-typical male and two paratype and three non-typical females show it to be a valid species, perhaps endemic to north Florida, distinguished by its small size and the configurations of the gonopods and coxal lobes of legs 3-6 in males. Supplemental anatomical notes are presented on the non-typical male along with comparative drawings of the lobes and gonopods of N. woodruffi, N. americanus (Beauvois), and N. annularis (Rafinesque); distributions of species of Narceus in Florida are depicted on a map. Substantial size differences between ostensibly conspecific males of N. americanus Texas and Arkansas suggest that Narceus may be more complex than the current concept of four species.
Comments
Published in Insecta Mundi Vol. 16, No. 1-3, March-September, 2002. Copyright © 2002 Shelley.
Insecta Mundi, published by the Center for Systematic Entomology, is available online at http://centerforsystematicentomology.org/.