On some silverfish taxa from the Cape York region of northern Australia (Zygentoma: Lepismatidae: Ctenolepismatinae)

Abstract

Silverfish (Zygentoma) are an ancient, but poorly studied group of primitively wingless insects. Species definition based on morphology alone is complicated by variations arising from the continuous moulting, even after reaching sexual maturity. In recent studies the use of molecular data has supported the identification of consistent morphological character traits, however only a small fraction of the species have been investigated. Eight species of the large silverfish genus Acrotelsella, collected by the first author from the Cape York Peninsula of northeastern Australia, are described and named as new species. Molecular data (COI and 28S) are presented that reinforces previous suggestions that the genus will eventually need to be split into two.

Keywords

• zygentoma
• silverfish
• thysanura
• taxonomy
• new species
• barcode
• acrotelsella