Malagana, Kontschán, Jenő & Starý, Josef, 2014

Kontschán, Jenő & Starý, Josef, 2014, New species of Uropodina from Madagascar (Acari: Mesostigmata), Zootaxa 3895 (4), pp. 547-569 : 556

Malagana gen. nov.

Type species. Malagana rotunda sp. nov.

Diagnosis. Idiosoma circular, dorsal shield anteriorly fused to marginal shield. Dorsal setae pilose, some setae on anterior margins robust and bifurcated. Genital shield of female linguliform, genital shield of male small and circular. Seven pairs of sternal setae in females and eight in male, all short and needle-like. Majority of ventral setae situated near caudal part of pedofossae IV, where a strongly sclerotised area presented. Hypostomal setae h1 smooth and long, h2‒4 serrate. Corniculi horn-like, internal malae smooth and longer than corniculi. Chelicerae with internal sclerotised node, movable digit shorter than fixed digit. Leg I with a small claw.

Etymology. The name of the new genus refers to the earlier name of the country, Malagasy Republic. Gender: Feminine.

Remarks. The new genus belongs to the family Urodinychidae , as used by Mašán (2001) and Beaulieu et al. (2011), which differs from Dinychidae by the presence ( Urodinychidae ) or absence ( Dinychidae ) of pedofossae (Kontschán, 2013). On the basis of the number of sternal setae, the presence of internal sclerotised nodes in the chelicerae, and the shape of seta h1, this new genus is closely related to the very large genus Uroobovella (differences summarised in Table 1).

Uroobovella Malagana Shape of idiosoma oval circular

Dorsal shield setae needle-like pilose

Robust bifurcate setae on anterior margins of dorsal shield absent present

Strongly sclerotised area near end of pedofossae IV absent present

Shape of majority of ventral setae needle-like robust and pilose Shape of adanal and postanal setae needle-like pilose

Surface on dorsal and marginal shield mostly smooth covered by oval pits