A novel set of traits to describe collembola mouthparts: Taking a bite out of the broad chewing mandible classification

Abstract The use of functional traitsin arthropod ecology has gained in popularity and could be a valuable tool to predict consumer-resource interactions among soil invertebrates. Currently, Collembola feeding strategies are categorized very broadly with either piercing-sucking or chewing mouthparts, despite the diversity of resources they consume. This study described and measured a new set of Collembola mandibular traitsin order to better discriminate chewing species based on their mouthpart morphology. Then, we evaluated whether these consumer traitscovaried with various litter quality resource traits(physical, chemical or microbial). Out of our 50 studied species, 42 clustered significantly in seven new chewing mandible functional groups. Neither body length, nor phylogeny, were adequate proxies for this set of mandibular traitsgiven tremendous variation across closely related species. Furthermore, when covariation with litter traitsoccurred, Collembola mandibular traitsexplained just as much covariation as species composition. These novel traitsdescribing Collembola mouthparts could be a promising venue for predicting feeding interactions of Collembola and their resources.