Collembola of northern Victoria Land: distribution, population structure and preliminary molecular data to study origin and evolution of Antarctic Collembola.

A detailed study of species distribution and abundance of collembolan species in the North Victoria Land is provided. Three species of Collembola were found during the 1995-1996 campaign: Gressittacantha terranova, Isotoma klovstadi, and Friesea grisea, of which G. terranova is the most common species, and also very abundant. Instead, I. klovstadi is the most abundant species in the area of Tucker Inlet. A fourth new species, Folsomia antarctica, is described on the basis of specimens collected during previous Italian expeditions. An allozyme screening of populations of G. terranova shows that this species is very variable and heterozygosity levels are quite high. DNA sequences were obtained in I. Klovstadi for the mitochondrial COII gene and a fragment of the nuclear rDNA. These sequences provide a first approach to the reconstruction of a molecular phylogeny of Antarctic and non-Antarctic species, useful for inferring the origin of Antarctic collembolan fauna.