Unionicola (Kovietsatax) cirrosa Koenike, 1914

Smit, Harry, 2008, Australian Unionicola (Acari: Hydrachnidia: Unionicolidae), with the description of two new subgenera and eight new species, Zootaxa 1674, pp. 1-26 : 15-18

Unionicola (Kovietsatax) cirrosa Koenike, 1914

( Figs. 23–26 )

Unionicola cirrosa Koenike, 1914: 397 ; Koenike 1920: 528.

Unionicola (Kovietsatax) cirrosa Vidrine 198: 238; Harvey 1998: 143.

Material examined. Type material: Syntype male, “ Type ”, Australien, auf Unio nepeanensis Less. , leg. Prof. v. Ihering (slide 1350, ZMB); syntype female, “ Type ”, same data, (slide 1352, ZMB). Three more unnumbered slides apparently from the type locality, but not labelled as types.

Description. Male: Genital field with five pairs of acetabula anteriorly, two pairs a little bit distanced from anterior three pairs. Another pair of acetabula is much more distanced, near posterior margin of genital field, Female: Lengths of PI-PV: 25, 180, 102, 170, 90. Palp stocky, no seta visible on the palp. I-leg-6 anterodorsally with a club-shaped seta. Claws of legs large.

Remarks. Koenike (1914) illustrated only the ventral view of the male and the female genital field. Unfortunately, only slide 1352 with the syntype female is in good enough condition that some structures can still be seen. Illustrations are given here for the female palp and the female I-leg-6. Slide 1350 with the syntype male is in much worse condition, and only the acetabula can be discerned. Koenike (1914) illustrated five pairs of acetabula, but very likely six pairs are present, just as in the female. Later on ( Koenike 1920), he mentioned that the genital field has 12 acetabula, with one pair situated near the posterior margin. The long posterior setae illustrated by Koenike (1914) cannot be seen anymore. However, according to Koenike (1920), this male was aberrant, and also the lower number of acetabula (10?) was aberrant. The palp of the male of slide 1350 was not dissected. All other slides are in a very bad condition, and no details can be seen anymore.

Figures

FIGURE 23 – 26. Unionicola cirrosa Koenike, 23, syntype male, genital field; 24, syntype female, genital field; 25, syntype female, palp; 26, syntype female, I-leg- 6. Scale bars = 50 µm.