Zelandomomonia, Smit, 2019

Smit, Harry, 2019, New and rare species of hyporheic water mites from New Zealand (Acari: Hydrachnidia: Aturidae, Momoniidae with the description of two new genera, one new subgenus and one new species, Acarologia 59 (3), pp. 364-373 : 372

Subgenus Zelandomomonia n. subg.

Zoobank: 7B4F9F55-4F3A-4A63-BFE3-D5F4C9C5AAF2

Diagnosis — Lateral eyes present. Dorsum with one pair of platelets and three large unpaired plates. Venter soft, Cx-I+II separated from Cx-III+IV. Cx-IV long, with a slightly concave posteromedial margin, forming a genital bay; Cx-IV without a group of long setae near posterolateral margin, but three moderate large setae posterior to insertion of fourth legs. Insertions of fourth legs far distanced from lateral idiosoma margin. Genital field with three pairs of acetabula on a pair of genital plates in female, but in the gonopore field in male. Gonopore field of female much longer than genital plates, pregenital sclerite very small, postgenital sclerite moderately long and somewhat curved. P4 ventrally with one stout and one hair-like seta, P5 not tapering distally, with two stout claws. Legs without swimming setae. I-leg-5 elongated, I-leg-6 stocky, with an elongated claw.

Type species — Momonia hopkinsi Schwoerbel, 1984

Habitat — Interstitial.

Distribution — One species known from New Zealand.

Remarks — Due to the absence of swimming setae, the presence of large dorsal platelets and the atypical palp the species from New Zealand cannot be assigned to Kondia as proposed by Schwoerbel (1984). Previously, four subspecies were known of the genus Momonia , i.e. Momonia s.s., Kondia Sokolow, 1926 , Paramomonia Yi & Jin, 2012 and Orientmomonia Pešić, 2014. However, none of these subgenera match the description given above, and therefore, I propose to erect a new subgenus to accommodate M. hopkinsi .