ISSN: 2705-4403 (Print) & 2705-4411 (Online) www.cdztu.edu.np/njz Vol. 5 | Issue 1 | June 2021 https://doi.org/10.3126/njz.v5i1.38287 Checklist Annotated checklist of Collembola of Nepal Prem Bahadur Budha 1* | Pratistha Shrestha1 1Central Department of Zoology, Institute of Science and Technology, Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu, Nepal *Correspondence: [email protected] Suggested citation: Budha, P. B. Abstract and Shrestha, P. 2021. Annotated checklist of collembola of Nepal. Nepalese Journal of Zoology This is the first annotated checklist of Collembola species of Nepal. It includes 167 collembolan species belonging to 78 genera and 5(1):22–33. 17 families including 45 endemic species. Majority of the Nepalese collembolan species were reported from major trekking routes viz. https://doi.org/10.3126/njz.v5i1.38287 Mount Everest, Annapurna Conservation Area and Langtang area with very few other locations. The highest record of collembola in Article History: Nepal is about 5800 m asl. Southern Terai and Siwalik range remain unexplored. Received: 05 October 2020 Revised: 17 June 2021 Accepted: 25 June 2021 Keywords: Endemic species; Hexapods; Himalanura; Nepalanura; Springtails Publisher’s note: The editorial board (Natural History) Museum expedition to Nepal. The major and the publisher of the NJZ remain 1 | Introduction neutral to the opinions expressed and taxonomic contributions on Nepalese Collembola were done only are not responsible for the accuracy of the results and maps presented by Collembola, commonly known as in late 1960s. Yosii (1966a, b, 1971) reported more than 60 the authors. springtails are widely distributed species with the description of two new genera viz. Nepalanura small terrestrial hexapods measuring and Janetschekbrya and several new species from Nepal. Later new additions were done by Mari Mutt and Bhattacharjee (1980), Copyright: © 2021 by the authors 0.2–8 mm in size with approximately Licensee: Central Department of 9000 species in the World (Bellinger Mari Mutt (1981), Wilson (1982), Cassagnau (1984, 1993). In Zoology, Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu, Nepal. et al. 1996–2021; Deharveng et al. subsequent years, new records and species descriptions were 2008; Timmermans et al. 2008). further added from the previous expeditions’ collections by Bedos Previously they were considered as insects but the recent and Deharveng (1991), Tamura and Zhao (1997), Thapa (1997), molecular studies reveal their pancrustacean relationship D’Haese and Weiner (1998), Potapov and Cassagnau (2000), (Timmermans et al. 2008). They are the most diversified soil Agolin et al. (2009), Thapa (2015), Zhang (2015), Schulz (2018). hexapods at local scale (<10 m2) (Deharveng 1996). However, Thapa (1997) first time complied the all previously known they live in wide range of habitats viz. soil, leaf litter, ground collembolan from Nepal and listed 125 species and however his vegetation, tree trunk, tree canopy, seashore, caves, deserts and later published book of Insect Diversity of Nepal comprised only even in snow or ice (André 1983; Rodgers & Kitching 1998, 2011; 122 species of Collembola (Thapa 2015). Rusek 1998; Shaw 2013). They play a key role in soil influencing Most of springtails’ inventories in Nepal represent the high the soil formation, soil microbial ecology, nutrient cycling, and Himalaya, with very limited reports from mid-hills and low land. enhance soil fertility by decomposition (Behan-Pelletier 2003; The uppermost record of collembolan from Nepal was from 5800 Greenslade 2007; Santos et al. 2008; Snyder & Callaham 2019). m asl (Janetschek 1990). Many pristine habitats of different Collembolan short generation period, lower dispersal capacity physiographic zones of Nepal are still to be explored. The present (Dunger & Voigtlander 2009), quick recovery with distinct list comprises 167 species within 78 genera, 17 families and 17 alteration (Frampton 1994; Geissen & Kampichler 2004), subfamilies. Taxonomic notes, global distribution of each genus sensitivity (Greenslade 2007) and susceptibility to any kind of is provided. disturbances (Petrillo & Witter 2005; Greenslade et al. 2011) make them valuable marker for the indication of environment 2 | Methods (Abbas & Parwez 2019; Gruss et al. 2019; Yin et al. 2019). The present checklist is based on the published papers on The earliest available record of Nepalese Collembola date backs Collembola of Nepal including compiled list of Thapa (1997, to early 1910s. The first species known from Nepal was probably 2015). All original descriptions were searched from Callyntrura lineata (Parona, 1892) which was originally described https://biodiversityheritagelibrary.org and https://www.collembola.org. as Paronella borneri Imms, 1912. After forty six years later, two Recent papers were searched in Google and Google scholar. All species Onychiurus himalayensis and O. gurjakhanii were species data are tabulated with the species name, original described by Choudhuri (1958) from the collection of 1952 British Nepalese Journal of Zoology 5(1):22–33 22 Nepalese Journal of Zoology 5(1) Budha & Shrestha designation, global species richness and order of taxonomic 12. Mari Mutt 1985; 13. Mari Mutt and Bhattacharjee 1980; 14. notes is provided. Classification of lower taxon categories (genus Palacios-Vargas and Gomez-Anaya 1995; 15. Potapov and and species) are arranged according to alphabetical order and Cassagnau 2000; 16. Skarzynski and Smolis 2006; 17. Thapa higher categories are arranged according to (Mandal 2018). The 2015; 18. Wilson 1982; 19. Yosii 1966b; 20. Yosii 1970; 21. Yosii GPS point locality of reported species were noted, if not 1971; 22. Yosii 1977; 23. Yosii 1990; 24. Zhang 2015 25. Mandal mentioned in published papers, these data were generated with and Hazra, 2009, 26. Schulz, 2018 the locality name given in the paper from the global georeferenced websites- (http://www.backups.nl/geocoding/, 40 http://www.mapchannels.com/GeocoderSimple.aspx). In 35 many cases, it is difficult to locate the specific point 30 25 Genera locality for many specific locations in rural areas. In this 20 case, we used only one or two searchable localities for 15 a district for several species. These data were used to 10 prepare distribution map of recorded species of 5 Collembola in Nepal so that district level information may Number of Genera and Species 0 remain intact. Isotomidae Neanuridae Katiannidae Paronellidae 3 | Results and discussion Odontellidae Tullbergiidae Dicyrtomidae Tomoceridae Onychiuridae Sminthuridae Orchesellidae Arrhopalitidae Collophoridae Sminthurididae Entomobryidae Hypogastruridae 3.1 | Collembola species diversity in Nepal Families of Collembola known from Nepal Brachystomellidae The updated list of Collembola of Nepal includes 167 Figure 1. Generic and species diversity within Collembolan families species belonging to 78 genera in 17 subfamilies and 17 families (Table 1). Inventory of Collembola was concentrated along the major trekking routes in Nepal particularly west Nepal (Annapurna Conservation Area) and Central Nepal (Langtang area and trekking route from Banepa- Kavrepalanchowk-Ramechhap-Solukhumbu to Everest base camp) and few high elevation area of west Nepal (Fig. 1). Most of the Tarai and Shiwalik range are completely unexplored with a few exceptions (Fig. 2). 3.2 | Species Accumulation Curve The inventory of Nepalese Collembola began in 1912. Yosii (1966, 1971) discovered 65 species from different part of the country. Janetscheki (1990) is another contributor to describe more than 70 species from Nepal. Based on the available information the species discovery curve is shown in Fig. 3. Figure 2. Distribution map of Collembola of Nepal 3.3 | Endemic collembolan species Endemism patterns varies among regions, habitats and taxa (Deharveng et al. 2008). Endemic species are special attention of conservation point of view. Collembola contain high endemic 150 species (Martin et al. 2000). Nepal is rich in endemic fauna of Collembola. Out of 167 know species 45 species (27%) are 100 endemic to Nepal (see * mark in the Table 1 for endemic species). 50 3.4 | Codes of references Number of species 0 [1. Agolin et al. 2009; 2. Bellinger and Ellis 1997; 3. Cassagnau 1912 1966 1971 1979 1981 1984 1990 1995 1998 2006 2015 1984; 4. Cassagnau 1993; 5. Cassagnau and Deharveng 1981; Year of published records 6. Choudhuri 1958; 7. D’Haese and Weiner 1998; 8. Imms 1912; Figure 3. Accumulation curve of the number of Collembola species reported from 9. Janetschek 1990; 10. Mari Mutt 1979; 11. Mari Mutt 1981; Nepal 23 Table 1. Checklist of the Nepalese Collembola Taxon Elevation (m) No. of Global Species* References Notes Order: Entomobryomorpha Borner, 1913 Superfamily: Entomobroidea Womerslley, 1934 Family: Entomobryidae Schaffer, 1896 Subfamily: Entomobryinae Schaffer, 1896 Genus: Entomobrya Rondani, 1861 329 (5) 1 Type species: Degeeria muscorum Nicolet, 1842 Entomobrya aino (Matsummura & Uchida, 1931) 26 Entomobrya chomolungmae Yosii, 1971* 1200–4350 9 Entomobrya chooyuae Yosii, 1971* 900–4350 9 Entomobrya lhotseae Yosii, 1971* 1200–5700 9 Entomobrya rohtagensis Baijal, 1958 23 Entomobrya sp. 17 Genus: Himalanura Baijal, 1958 19 (5) Type species: Himalanura indica Baijal, 1958 Himalanura kangbachensis (Yosii, 1966)* 1500–4500 9 Himalanura khumbuensis (Yosii, 1971)* 1200–4300 9 Himalanura makaluae (Yosii, 1971)* 1200–3900 9 Himalanura nuptseae (Yosii, 1971)* 1680–5250 9 Himalanura pangpochensis (Yosii, 1971)* 1200–4300 9 Genus: Sinella Brook, 1882 87 (1) Type