Oribatula amblyptera Berlese, 1916

Ivan, O., 2013, Genus Oribatula S. Str. Berlese, 1896 (Oribatida, Oribatulidae) In Romanian Fauna, Acarologia 7 (2), pp. 175-184 : 176-178

Oribatula amblyptera Berlese, 1916

( Figure 2 )

Literature — Berlese (1916), Mahunka (1994), Weigmann (2006).

Material examined — 5 – 9 specimens of 2 populations, from the Danube Delta (cultivated soil) and Prut river meadow (pasture) .

Diagnosis — Species of medium size (Table 1), yellowish to light chestnut in colour. Cuticle smooth, without ornamentation. Prodorsum with ribbon shaped lamella; lamellar apex concave, and its median angle prominent; a short and curved prolamella can be observed. Prodorsal setae robust, finely barbed. Sensillus relatively short, fusiform clavate, with rounded end. ( Table 2). Notogaster with 13 pairs of simple and thin notogastral setae, often hardly observable; the 4 pairs of areae porosae are round and small, placed in the usual position. Ventral side has the aspect and chaetotaxy characteristic for the genus.

Remarks — Although considered as synonym of O. tibialis ( Subias 2004, 2012), O. amblyptera differs from the nominate species by a number of characters, such as: body size, shape and length of sensillus, smaller areae porosae, especially Aa, shorter notogastral and prodorsal setae in and le (Tables 1, 2).

Distribution — Southern and Central Europe ( Weigmann 2006). In Romania this species was recently recorded in the Eastern region, in wet soils, including cultivated ones, from Prut river meadow and the Danube Delta ( Ivan 2009).

Figures

FIGURE 2: Oribatula amblyptera Berlese, 1916: a – dorsal view; b – ventral view; scale bar: 100 µm. TABLE 1: Dimensions of the body and its parts in Oribatula species (µm; mean ± SD)