Sphaerochthonius splendidus

van der Hammen, L., 1959, Berlese's Primitive Oribatid Mites, Zoologische Verhandelingen 40, pp. 1-93 : 25-26

Sphaerochthonius splendidus (Berlese, 1904)

Hypochthonius splendidus Berlese , 1904b, p. 26, pl. 2 fig. 37.

Sphaerochthonius splendidus , Berlese, 1910, p. 223; Lombardini, 1936, p. 49.

Berlese (1904b) published a concise description of the species, which is accompanied by a superficial figure. In combining the data of description and figure, one arrives at the conclusion that S. splendidus is a gray mite, measuring 0.310 X 0.200 mm, with a notogaster that is considerably convex, with 1 dorsal "coupure", thick cylindrical notogastral hairs (!), a microsculpture of polygonal areolae, and monodactylous legs (!). The sensillus is described as cultriform, anteriorly with hairs, posteriorly granulate; in the figure of a specimen in dorsal view, the sensillus is, however, drawn as cylindrical, on all sides beset with hairs. Berlese further mentions the occurrence of granules on the dorsal hairs, which later (Berlese, 1910) he regarded as sticking dirt. The species was described after specimens from the "Giardino di Boboli" in Florence.

In the Berlese Collection 3 slides of the species are present, viz. the nos. 58 /6, 58/7, and 24/18; the first-mentioned two have been designated as type. The nos. 58/7 and 24/18 originate from the "Giardino di Boboli"; 58/6 was collected in the "Giardino Giapponica", earlier a part of the above-mentioned garden, but nowadays belonging to the "Stazione di Entomologia agraria". The slides, although in a rather bad condition, are suited for Observation of some important structures. Because I collected a number of specimens at the type-locality, an extensive redescription will be published separately. For the nioment it suffices to mention the following characters, overlooked or incorrectly interpreted by Berlese.

The animal is covered with a coarsely granulate cerotegument that is also present on the cultriform sensillus and the dorsal hairs; probably owing to this Berlese overlooked the remarkable T-shape of the last-mentioned hairs. The notogaster has one "coupure"; the pygidium shows two rather faint transverse ridges that form part of the dorsal sculpture, but that are no "coupures". The pleuraspides consist of two parts; a small triangular, and a larger piece (lateral and inguino-scapular according to Oudemans's 1917a terminology). The legs are tridactyle; they resenible those described by Grandjean (1932) after a Sphaerochthonius spec. from Algeria; Grandjean characterized this species as similar to S. splendidus but dif ferent by the tridactyle legs. Because S. splendidus appears to be also tridactyle, I suppose that the Algerian specimens indeed belong to the present species.