Javalbia Viets, 1935

Smit, H., 2016, The water mite family Aturidae Thor, 1900 from Southeast Asia (Acari: Hydrachnidia) with the description of one new genus and 14 new species, Acarologia 56 (3), pp. 341-365 : 349

Genus Javalbia Viets, 1935

The genus Javalbia is known from Europe (two species), Turkey (one species) and Africa (two species), but most species are known from the Oriental region (13 species). Especially the high number of eight species from Borneo is striking ( Smit and Peši´c 2014). Two " Axonopsalbia " species described by Cook (1967) from India might as well belong to this genus.

Four subgenera are known currently, i.e. Javalbia , Javalbiopsis Cook, 1967 , Javalbicula K.O. Viets, 1974 and Megapes Smit and Peši´c, 2014 . The subgenus Javalbicula differs only in the number of acetabula (four pairs instead of three). The two Asian species, i.e. J. ovata Kim and Chung, 1996 and the 4-acetabulate species described below, have the excretory pore on a separate platelet. The African species J. lata K.O. Viets, 1974 and the Turkish J. turcica Esen, Peši´c and Erman, 2011 have the excretory pore fused with the dorsal shield (K.O. Viets and Böttger 1974, Esen et al. 2011). Therefore I propose to synonymize Javalbicula with Javalbiopsis , and assign the two Asian species to Javalbia s.s.