Axenyllodes echinatus Fjellberg, 1988

Babenko, Anatoly, Shveenkova, Yulia & Arbea, Javier I., 2025, Two new and two little-known species of the genus Axenyllodes Stach, 1949 from Russia and Kazakhstan, Zootaxa 5583 (1), pp. 154-170 : 166

Axenyllodes echinatus Fjellberg, 1988

Fig. 15

Studied material. 3 females, Russia (European part), Middle Volga River Basin, Penza Region, “Privolzhskaya Lesostep” State Nature Reserve , vicinity of Shatkino , 52.5560 o N 46.1812 o E, bank of Kadada river , floodplain xerophytic sagebrush meadow, sandy soil, 15 September 2017. Yu. Shveenkova leg.

Remarks. Probably not a very common European species, which was originally described from Norway (northern Finnmark), where it inhabits sandy coastal meadows and dunes. It was also recorded in southern Norway, where it occupies quite a different type of habitat: eroded fine-grained sediments of glacio-lacustrine origin with sparse vegetation ( Fjellberg 1998, p. 96). In our materials, A. echinatus was found only in floodplain communities of one of the sites of the “Privolzhskaya Lesostep” Nature Reserve, this significantly increasing not only its distribution, but also its ecological preferences.

As the species has been described in detail ( Fjellberg 1988, 1998), only a few minor additions can be made. Thus, our specimens from the Volga region always have only two prelabral setae (medial pair absent), lacking the basal pair of setae on the manubrial field and having only 3+3 setae on its main part ( Fig. 15 ). The latter character, i.e. the chaetotaxy of the manubrial field was confirmed by A. Fjellberg for Scandinavian populations (pers. comm.).

Figures

FIGURES 10–15. Axenyllodes ghilarovi (10–12), A. bayeri (13), A. nematodes (14) and A. echinatus (15): 10, dorsal chaetotaxy of head and thorax, holotype; 11, abdominal tip, holotype; 12–15, chaetotaxy of manubrial field: m—setae on main part, b— basal setae and bl—basolateral setae. Scales: 10–11, 0.1 mm, 12–15, 0.01 mm.