Porcellionides buddelundi

Porcellionides buddelundi (Verhoeff, 1901)

Porcellio buddelundi Verhoeff, 1901: 406.

Porcellio atlanticus Arcangeli, 1935: 20.

Bibliographic references

Portugal: Coimbra (Verhoeff, 1901).

Remarks

Porcellionides buddelundi was briefly described by Verhoeff (1901) based on two females collected in Coimbra. In his description, the following features can be highlighted: body greyish-yellow and brown marbled, a light longitudinal stripe at the base of the epimera; back and head dull, robust, and fairly densely granulated; first segment of the antenna flagellum approximately one and half times as long as the second; cephalon with small, rounded lateral lobes on the sides; and tergites without transverse ridges. Based on these characteristics, this species closely resembles P. cingendus and P. molleri. However, since Verhoeff (1901) states that there are no transverse ridges on the tergites, it cannot be P. cingendus. The only features that distinguish P. buddelundi from P. molleri would be the coloration variations, observed by Vandel (1946) and indicated below, and the first segment of the flagellum being slightly longer than the second in P. molleri, whereas Verhoeff (1901) suggests that it is one and a half times longer in P. buddelundi. Despite sampling in numerous locations in Portugal, including Coimbra and nearby areas, we were unable to find specimens that perfectly match the short original species description, despite our best efforts. Considering the potential for misidentification with other species within the genus, particularly with P. molleri, we currently regard P. buddelundi as a species inquirenda.

Arcangeli (1936) proposed the name Porcellio (Porcellionides) atlanticus for this species, as he indicated that the name originally given by Verhoeff (1901), Porcellio (Metoponorthus) buddelundi, was already in use for another Porcellio. However, the current name still remains P. buddelundi.

Distribution

Coimbra district of Portugal (Verhoeff 1901) and in the Spanish provinces of Coruña, Granada, Orense, and Pontevedra (Schmölzer 1955a, 1971). However, these last records are considered doubtful because the author did not provide any information that would allow the association of his specimens from these citations with this largely unknown species.