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The Lepidocyrtus pallidus-serbicus group has been created for the two eponymic species only, but at the present time thegroup is composed by a total of 6 species: L. pallidus Reuter, 1890; L. serbicus Denis, 1933; L. pseudosinelloides Gisin,1967; L. weidneri Hüther, 1971; L. arrabonicus Traser 2000 and L. tomosvaryi sp. nov. The main characteristic shared byevery species in this group is the dorsal body macrochaetotaxy: 00/0101+2 and the presence of M 1 M 2 on the labial triangle.The new species is close to L. serbicus but clearly differs from it in the presence of a small dental tubercle at the basal part of the dens on the dorsal surface. An identification key is given for differentiating all species of this group.

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-We investigated the responses of collembolan communities to pine afforestation in an area formerly characterized by a mosaic of autochthonous downy oak woodland and steppe meadows. Study sites were selected in mixed stands of black pine and Scots pine and control samples were taken from downy oak stands and open steppe meadows. A total of 1884 Collembola specimens belonging to 66 species were collected. Three species, namely Protaphorura pannonica (Onychiuridae), Tomocerus mixtus (Tomoceridae) and Isotoma caerulea (Isotomidae) proved to be new to the Hungarian fauna. There are typical Collembola communities which are specific to different habitat types where species of a given composition can only or predominantly be found in that habitat, as well as some basic common species which occur in every habitat. The highest species richness (41) was found in steppe meadows, considerably lower (34) in downy oak forests, reaching the lowest value (25) in pine plantations. Although several forest species present in the oak woodland were completely missing from the pine forests, there was no significant difference between the Collembola diversities of the two forest habitats. The difference became more prominent in collembolan abundance which resulted in less than half of individuals/m 2 in pine plantations compared to the soils of downy oak forests, most likely due to the changed soil conditions, especially of humus characteristics, caused by the pine needle litter. Jaccard similarity measure indicated approximately equal similarity (0.24-0.28) for paired comparison, suggesting that a relatively constant 'basic Collembola community' determined by the soil type typical for the area is present; while dissimilarity in communities between sites are partly provided by spatial heterogeneity of open and forest habitats and by the difference of the vegetation type. soil fauna / Collembola communities / xerophil habitats / allochthonous pine forest Kivonat -Fenyvesítés hatása a Collembola diverzitásra a Szárhalmi-dombság területén. Kutatásunkban a fenyvesítés talajlakó ugróvillás-közösségekre gyakorolt hatását vizsgáltuk egy meszes talajú, egykoron molyhos tölgyes sztyepprét élőhelymozaikkal jellemezhető területen. A talajmintákat vegyes erdeifenyves-feketefenyves állományokból, valamint kontrollként őshonos molyhos tölgyesből és sztyepprétről gyűjtöttük. A vizsgálat során összesen 66 faj 1884 egyede került elő. Három faj, a Protaphorura pannonica (Onychiuridae), a Tomocerus mixtus (Tomoceridae) és az Isotoma caerulea (Isotomidae) a hazai faunára nézve újnak bizonyult. A vizsgált élőhelyek jellegzetes ugróvillás-közösségekkel jellemezhetők, amelyek az adott élőhelyre specifikus fajok mellett néhány közös, mindegyik habitatban előforduló fajt is tartalmaznak. A legnagyobb fajszámú (41) Collembola közösséget a sztyeppréteken találtuk, míg a molyhos tölgyesek fajgazdagsága alacsonyabbnak (34) bizonyult. A legkevesebb fajt (25) a telepített fenyvesekben gyűjtöttük. Bár több, a tölgyesekben előkerült erdei faj hiányzott a fen...

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Soil life supports the functioning and biodiversity of terrestrial ecosystems1,2. Springtails (Collembola) are among the most abundant soil animals regulating soil fertility and flow of energy through above- and belowground food webs3-5. However, the global distribution of springtail diversity and density, and how these relate to energy fluxes remains unknown. Here, using a global dataset collected from 2,470 sites, we estimate total soil springtail biomass at 29 Mt carbon (threefold higher than wild terrestrial vertebrates6) and record peak densities up to 2 million individuals per m2 in the Arctic. Despite a 20-fold biomass difference between tundra and the tropics, springtail energy use (community metabolism) remains similar across the latitudinal gradient, owing to the increase in temperature. Neither springtail density nor community metabolism were predicted by local species richness, which was highest in the tropics, but comparably high in some temperate forests and even tundra. Changes in springtail activity may emerge from latitudinal gradients in temperature, predation7,8, and resource limitation7,9,10 in soil communities. Contrasting temperature responses of biomass, diversity and activity of springtail communities suggest that climate warming will alter fundamental soil biodiversity metrics in different directions, potentially restructuring terrestrial food webs and affecting major soil functions.

The genus Lepidocyrtus is fairly well explored in Hungary and was up to now represented by 18 species. Systematic mesofauna survey of a swamp woodland gave us the opportunity to describe the new species, L. florae sp. nov., characterized by the dark blue color, the dorsal macrochaetae formula A0A2aA2A3S3Pa5/00/0101+2 and the absence of scales on the antennae. Related species L. arrabonicus, L. pallidus, L. pseudosinelloides and L. weidneri were also revised with particular attention to clarify the interpretation of the dorsal chaetotaxy of the head. The observed variability in abdominal chaetotaxy of L. pallidus suggests that the only character differentiating between this species and L. weidneri is the labial chaetotaxy, with chaeta r (in L. pallidus) and chaeta R (in L. weidneri). An identification key to European Lepidocyrtus species with dorsal trunk macrochaetae formula 00/0101+2 is also provided.