Spongiopsyllus Johnsson 2000

Genus Spongiopsyllus Johnsson, 2000 Type species Spongiopsyllus adventicius Johnsson, 2000. Revised diagnosis Entomolepididae Brady, 1899 Circular body, shield-shaped, composed of cephalosome and pedigerous somites. Pedigerous somites 2 and 3 free. Pedigerous somite 4 expanded posteriorly, covering urosome, except for tip of caudal rami. Three postgenital urosomites in females, four in males. Antennule 14- to 17-segmented. Antennary endopod 2- or 3-segmented; exopod 1-segmented, as long as first endopodal segment. Legs 1 to 3 biramous, 3-segmented. Leg 3 endopod with reduced armature formula. Leg 4 uniramous, 3-segmented exopod. Remarks The original diagnosis of the genus was restricted to the body shape and segmentation, and did not deal with the antennule and antenna segmentation, leg morphology or setal formula (Johnsson 2000). The free pedigerous somites 2 and 3 characterize the Entomolepinae which differ from Parmulodinae, (Parmulodes, Paralepeopsyllus, Parmulella, Neoparmulella and Parmulopsyllus), that exhibit pedigerous somites 2 and 3 fused (Wilson 1944; Ummerkutty 1960; Stock 1992; Canário et al. 2019; Farias et al. 2020; Borges et al. 2021). In Entomolepinae, leg 4 is absent in Entomolepis (Brady, 1899), and Lepeopsyllus shows a reduced endopod (Thompson & Scott 1903). The uniramous and 3-segmented leg 4 of Spongiopsyllus is shared with Entomopsyllus (McKinnon 1988), but the later exhibits 2 postgenital segments, instead of 3 exhibited by Spongiopsyllus (Johnsson 2000).