Georgella imperfecta Bader, 1955

Sabatino, Antonio Di, Gerecke, Reinhard, Gledhill, Terence & Smit, Harry, 2009, On the taxonomy of water mites (Acari: Hydrachnidia) described from the Palaearctic, part 2: Hydryphantoidea and Lebertioidea, Zootaxa 2266, pp. 1-34 : 11-12

Georgella imperfecta Bader, 1955

Hydryphantes imperfectus auct. Species incerta

Material examined: Holotype 3 NHMB XXVII /77, Italy, Timavo, 9.5.29 coll. Stammer 140.

Discussion: Walter (in Stammer 1932) introduced this species as a nomen nudum but obviously decided later not to describe it – a description was then published by Bader (1955) from the specimen found in Walter’s collection. The specimen is characterized by a genital field in which only the anterior acetabular group is developed - in the area of the posterior acetabula, genital flaps are formed as narrow sclerotized bars, in the area of the anterior acetabula they are medially fused. Also, the frontal shield is particular in so far as the anterior margin is straight, without the characteristic anteromedial projection. However, in this part of the idiosoma, the specimen was obviously damaged during extraction of the gnathosoma and we cannot exclude that the anterior part of the frontal shield was broken off.

There are no reasons to base a species on this single deformed specimen. In view of its bad state and irregular morphology it does not make sense to discuss its potential synonymy (the relatively low number of anterior acetabula -22- is also shared by G. helvetica ) and it should be regarded as species dubia.