Feltria (Feltria) kuluensis Tuzovskij, 1988

Pesic, Vladimir, Semenchenko, Ksenia A. & Lee, Wonchoel, 2015, Further studies on water mites from Korea, with description of two new species (Acari, Hydrachnidia), ZooKeys 507, pp. 1-24 : 10-11

Taxon classification Animalia Trombidiformes Feltriidae

Feltria (Feltria) kuluensis Tuzovskij, 1988 Fig. 12

Feltria kuluensis Tuzovskij 1988: 226. Synonymy.

Material examined.

SOUTH KOREA: CR16 Gyeongsangbuk Province, Juwangsan NP, Woroe-ri, Cheong song-eup, Dalgikpo, waterfall, 36°26.499'N, 129°08.114'E, 23.v.2013 Pešić & Karanović 1/0/0 (mounted).

Remarks.

The single male from this study matches the general morphology of Feltria kuluensis Tuzovskij, 1988, a species described from the Magadan region in the Russian Far East ( Tuzovskij (1988). This species closely resembles Feltria minuta Koenike, 1892, a species known from central, northern and western Europe, due to the following features: dorsum in male with a large shield (including Postoc. and Dgl-1-3) and Dgl-4 on paired, transverse, laterally pointed posterodorsal platelets (fig. 7-1, in Tuzovskij 1988), genital plate in male with undulating or straight anterior margin, gonopore in central position, and more than 50 pairs of Ac scattered over the whole plate (Fig. 12A), and male IV-L-6 with a digitiform ventrolateral extension directed to distal part of segment (Fig. 12B). Feltria minuta differs in relatively more slender palp, P-4 with both ventral setae on slightly elevated, parallel longitudinal extensions, and male IV-L-6 relatively more shorter with ventrolateral extension bearing one fine seta and two enlarged, transparent setae, adpressed to each other and directed ventrally ( Gerecke et al. 2009).

Chung and Kim (1991) reported and illustrated Feltria ishikariensis Imamura, 1954 from Kangreung, Korea. This species was described orginally by Uchida (1934) as Feltria rotunda based on three specimens (probably, by mistake assigned to a male, see figs 48-49 in Uchida 1934). Later on, Imamura (1954) described and illustrated the female of Feltria ishikariensis from Hokkaido, Japan. Feltria ishikariensis clearly differs from the species illustrated by Chung and Kim (1991) by the lower number of acetabula (<50 pairs of Ac). As their illustrations ( Chung and Kim 1991: Figs 6 G–I, 7 A–C) show a general conformity with Feltria kuluensis in all abovementioned characters, it is very likely that the specimens attributed to Feltria ishikariensis refer to Feltria kuluensis .

In the same paper, Chung and Kim (1991) assigned two female specimens collected from Kangreung to Feltria minuta Koenike, 1892. As mentioned by Pešić (2014), because the important characters are restricted to males, this assignment is uncertain, and probably refer to female of Feltria kuluensis .

Distribution.

Far East of Russia ( Tuzovskij 1988). New for fauna of Korea.