Ground Lice, Zoraptera, are small (less than 3 mm) Insects typically found under bark. They are one of the smallest orders of Insects, with only 46 described species, although this may be a severe underestimation of their true diversity, as they are both easily overlooked and morphologically conservative. Ground Lice have a fossil record dating back to the Palaeozoic, with the last common ancestor of all living species thought to have lived about 270 million years ago. They are mostly wingless, and were once thought to be so throughout their life-cycle (the name Zoraptera means 'pure wingless') but winged forms are produced at some times of year, helping them colonise new areas.
In a paper published in the journal ZooKeys on 1 September 2023, Yoko Matsumura of the Department of Ecology and Systematics at Hokkaido University, Munetoshi Maruyama of the Kyushu University Museum, Nelson Ntonifor of the Department of Agronomic and Applied Molecular Sciences at the University of Buea, and Rolf Beutel of the Entomology Group at Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena, describe a new species of Ground Louse from Cameroon.
The new species is described from a single wingless male specimen discovered under a 30 cm long rock half embedded in soil close to the village of Nyasoso in Southwest Region, Cameroon, by Takashi Komatsu and Munetoshi Maruyama. A subsequent search of the surrounding forest yielded no further specimens. It is placed in the genus Zorotypus, and given the specific name komatsui; no explanation is given for this name, but it presumably honours Takashi Komatsu. The single known specimen of Zorotypus komatsui is a wingless male, 2.42 mm in length, with a head 0.47 mm long and 0.50 mm wide. It is light brown in colour, lacking any markings, even eye spots.
Matsumura et al. also report the presence of Zorotypus vinsoni, a species previously known only from Mauritius, on Madagascar. This is the second species found to be present on both islands, following Zorotypus delamarei, which was discovered initially on Madagascar and subsequently on Mauritius. Mauritius was formed by volcanic activity about 8.9 million years ago, and probably largely resurfaced by another volcanic episode about 1 million years ago. This being the case, it is likely that both species of Zorotypus found on Mauritius have colonised the island from Madagascar in the recent past.
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