Dartonia

Pešić, Vladimir, 2013, A remarkable new Nilotonia species (Acari, Hydrachnidia, Anisitsiellidae) from percolating water of a cave in Cat Ba island in Halong Bay, Vietnam, Zootaxa 3710 (4), pp. 372-380 : 377-378

Subgenus Dartonia K, Viets, 1929

Syn. Dartiella K, Viets, 1929 nov. syn.

Type species: Dartonia coerulea K. Viets, 1929

Diagnosis. In both sexes, dorsal idiosoma sclerotization consisting of a pair of postocular platelets and the posterodorsal plate; Cx-III anteriorly not protruding over posterior margin of Cx-II; anterior to genital field, medial margins of Cx-III rounded or slightly pointed, not parallel to each other. Acetabula generally large, not separated by large interspaces (in one species reduced in size and separated by large gaps), their basal sclerites not or slightly extending beyond acetabular margin, never fused to each other. II-L without sexual dimorphism, IV-L-6 various in shape, without claws, but with a tiny claw remnants (two fine terminal denticle-like setae, often accompanied by two short hair-like setae) and without elongated terminal seta(e), lateral setae present or absent, with one or two subterminal seta(e) various in length (extending or not beyond tip of segment), rarely without a subterminal seta (in N. fundamentalis Bader from Israel).

The following species are included in the subgenus Dartonia K. Viets, 1929 :

Nilotonia bisetosa Smit & Pešić, 2010 (northern Oman) Nilotonia caerulea (K. Viets, 1929) (Sumatra, Java)

Nilotonia catarrhacta (Lundblad, 1941) ( South Africa)? Nilotonia crassipalpis (Lundblad, 1941)

Nilotonia fundamentalis Bader, 1955 ( Israel)

Nilotonia hanniae Bader, 1955 ( Israel)

Nilotonia hormozgana Pešić, Smit & Saboori, 2012 (southern Iran) Nilotonia ivelany Goldschmidt (2008) ( Madagascar)

Nilotonia longipora (Walter, 1925) (Mediterranean)

Nilotonia longiseta Smit & Pešić, 2010 (northern Oman) Nilotonia micropora (Walter, 1939) ( Congo, Kivu)

Nilotonia navina Cook, 1967 ( India)

Nilotonia onilahy Goldschmidt (2008) ( Madagascar)

Nilotonia parva (Walter, 1913) (Central Sahara, Western Mediterranean) Nilotonia pontifica Gerecke, 1992 ( Italy)

Nilotonia pyrenaica Lundblad, 1956 ( Spain, Italy)

Nilotonia rackae Bader & Sepasgozarian, 1980 ( Iran) Nilotonia robusta (Walter, 1931) (Sahara, Saudi Arabia [sub nomen N. buettikeri Bader, 1980 ], Israel, Oman) Nilotonia sketi sp. nov. ( Vietnam)

Nilotonia thermophila Lundblad, 1951 ( Congo: Rwenzori Mountains)

As already stated by Panesar (2004) the subgenus Dartonia is a paraphyletic dumping ground for all species lacking particular features that define the remaining subgenera. Nilotonia crassipalpis (Lundblad, 1941) from Java, included into the list above with a question mark, was ascribed to its own genus Dartoniella Lundblad, 1941 characterized by the ventral margin of P-2 bearing a knob-shaped projection anterior to the hair-like ventral seta. Until additional information on this species will be available—Lundblad (1941) mentioned that legs were similar to N. caerulea , but the lack of a description or figure (Lundblad 1971) leaves questions concerning chaetotaxy of IV-L- 6 - I follow Cook’s (1967) proposal to synonymize Dartoniella with Dartonia .

Panesar (2004) included Nilotonia turcica Özkan & Soysal, 1989 in the subgenus Dartia . As stated by Di Sabatino et al. (2010), sexual dimorphism of II-L, a character state not found in N. turcica , is of great taxonomic weight for the definition of this subgenus and excludes definitively Panesar's proposal. As the species from Turkey does not fit in any of the already described subgenera, a further new subgenus is erected to accommodate this species.