Mesotritia paraflagelliformis Niedbała, 2017

Niedbała, Wojciech & Ermilov, Sergey G., 2017, New species and records of ptyctimous mites (Acari, Oribatida) from the Philippines, Zootaxa 4231 (1), pp. 119-128 : 121

Mesotritia paraflagelliformis Niedbała sp. nov.

( Fig. 1 , A–E)

Description. Measurements of holotype. Species of medium size. Prodorsum: length 318, width 212, height 121; setae: ss 38, in 68, le 91, ro 94, ex 20; notogaster: length 576, width 384, height 376; setae: c 1 76, h 1 and ps 1 71; length of setae h of mentum 71, h / h–h =4; genital and aggenital plates 145 × 45, anal and adanal plates 293 × 40. Integument. Colour dark brown. Surface of body punctate.

Prodorsum with long lateral carinae, ventrally to it a trace of another carinae only half the size. Sensilli slightly fusiform, swollen in the middle. Rostral setae situated in the middle, slightly anteriorly of interlamellar setae. Relation of lengths: ro=> le> in> ss> ex.

Notogaster with fine and short (c 1<c 1 –d 1) setae. Setae of row c remote from anterior margin, c 1 and c 2 slightly more than setae c 3. Some striation on dorsal part of notogaster is the traces of deformation of specimen after the maceration process in lactic acid.

Ventral region. Seta h of subcapitular mentum considerably (four times) longer than distance between them. Six pairs of short genital setae and two pairs of aggenital setae present, ag 1 shorter than ag 2. One pair of short anal and three pairs of adanal setae present, ad 1 four times longer than ad 2 and ad 3, distance between ad 1 and ad 2 also four times longer than distance between ad 2 and ad 3. Lyrifissures iad situated anteriorly of ad 3.

Legs. Chaetome: I 1-3 -5(2)-5(1)-19(3), II 1-4 -4(1)-4(1)-13(2), III 2-3 -2(1)-2(1)- 11, IV 2-3 -2(0)-2(1)-10.

Material examined. Holotype: Philippines, Luzon Island, Benguet Province, 5823— Puff Cliff , Benguet State University campus, 13.II.2010 (R.C. Garcia), from sample of litter from pine ( Pinus kesiya ) forest.

Etymology. The prefix para is Latin meaning “near” and refers to the similarity between the new species and Mesotritia flagelliformis ( Ewing, 1909) .

Comparison. The new species is very similar to the Holarctic species, Mesotritia flagelliformis ( Ewing, 1909) ( Niedbała 2000) , by the body dimension, shape of sensilli and arrangement of setae of ventral plates. However, it is distinguishable from the latter by the presence of a weak lower lateral carinae (versus one pair of lateral carinae in M. flagelliformis ); arrangement of prodorsal setae, rostral setae situated slightly anteriorly of interlamellar setae (versus slightly anteriorly of lamellar setae); longer notogastral setae, c 3>1/2 c 3– cp (versus c 3<1/2 c 3– cp) or h 1>1/ 2 h 1– ps 1 (versus h 1<1/2 h 1– ps 1) and setae ad 2 and ad 3 considerably, more than 4 times, shorter than ad 1 (versus ratio ad 1: ad 2: ad 3 is approximately 2.5: 2: 1).

Figures

FIGURE 1 A – E. Mesotritia paraflagelliformis Niedba ³ a sp. nov. (holotype): A—prodorsum, dorsal view; B—prodorsum with anterior part of notogaster, lateral view; C—opisthosoma, lateral view; D—fragment of mentum of subcapitulum; E—right part of ventral plates. Scale bars 100 µm (A – C, E), 50 µm (D).