Protoplophora palpalis Berlese

van der Hammen, L., 1959, Berlese's Primitive Oribatid Mites, Zoologische Verhandelingen 40, pp. 1-93 : 29

Protoplophora palpalis Berlese , 1910

Protoplophora palpalis Berlese , 1910, p. 217, pl. 20 figs. 53, 53a.

Prothoplophora palpalis , Lombardini, 1936, p. 47.

The present species was described in less than three lines, accompanied by two schematic drawings; the characters given are not suited for specific ideniification.

In the Berlese Collection one slide of P. palpalis is present, viz. no. 81/41, designated as type, locality Palermo (Sicily). In its present State the preparation is completely unsuited for study, and remounting of the very small specimens appeared too risky. For this reason it has been impossible to establish if the types are adults or juveniles. The number of dorsal "coupures" and the telescoping tergites point to the nymphal stage.

It is uncertain if the single specimen collected by Grandjean (1932, p. 24) in Spain, and identified by him with P. palpalis , indeed belongs to the species. The adult specimen is smaller than Protoplophora palpalis , it has only one dorsal "coupure", and the sensillus is differently shaped.

Grandjean (1932, p. 26) described another related species as belonging to the genus Protoplophora ( P. bivaginata ), although he thought that the different structure of the ventral surface pointed to a separate genus. Because Berlese does not mention characters of the ventral surface, it is, in my opinion, impossible to decide if any of the two species indeed belongs to the genus Protoplophora .