Pulchellaobovella madagascarica, Kontschán, Jenő & Starý, Josef, 2014

Kontschán, Jenő & Starý, Josef, 2014, New species of Uropodina from Madagascar (Acari: Mesostigmata), Zootaxa 3895 (4), pp. 547-569 : 559-563

Pulchellaobovella madagascarica sp. nov.

( Figs 48–59 )

Material examined. Holotype. Female. Mad-89/36: Madagascar (Prov. Antsiranana [Diego-Suarez], Sous-préf. Andoany [Hell-Ville]): île Nosy Be, Réserve Lokobe, forêt primaire près Ampasindava, prélèvement de sol au pied d’un grand arbre, 85m; 30. XI. 1989; B. Hauser coll. Paratype. Five females and six males. Locality and date as in holotype ( NHMG).

Description. Female. Length of idiosoma 1080–1100 µm, width 660–670 µm (n=6). Idiosoma pentagonal, dorsally domed. Margin of idiosoma with two triangular protuberances at level of anterior margin of dorsal shield.

Dorsal idiosoma ( Fig. 48 ). Dorsal and marginal shields completely separated. Dorsal shield covered by oval pits, bearing short and marginally pilose setae (ca 28–31 µm). Marginal shield with oval pits, marginal shield setae similar in shape and length to dorsal shield setae (ca 28–30 µm) ( Fig. 49 ).

Ventral idiosoma ( Fig. 50 ). Sternal shield mostly smooth, some shallow oval pits situated on lateral and caudal areas; anterior margin of sternal shield serrate; four pairs of sternal setae smooth and needle-like (ca 6–7 µm), St1 inserted near anterior margin of sternal shield, St2 at level of central area of coxae II, St3 at level of anterior margin of coxae III, St4 placed near basal edges of genital shield. Ventral shield covered by numerous deep and oval pits. Irregular pits situated near posterior margin pedofossae IV. Pedofossae deep and smooth with separate furrows for tarsi IV. Two pairs of ventral setae smooth and needle-like (ca 13–15 µm), distance between these differing in different specimens, in holotype, distance between first and second pairs longer than distance between second ventral seta and first adanal setae ( Fig. 49 ), these distances equal in a paratype ( Fig. 51 ). Other ventral setae similar in shape and length to dorsal setae ( Fig. 51 ). Anal opening situated on a small hump, adanal setae smooth and needle-like (ca 8–9 µm), postanal seta absent. Genital shield situated between coxae II-IV, scutiform, apical margin pointed, its surface covered by scattered oval pits, holotype and some paratypes with pits in caudal area only ( Fig. 52 ), another paratype with pits over whole surface ( Fig. 53 ). Prestigmatid part of peritremes long, apical part hooklike, poststigmatid part short. Stigmata situated between coxae II and III. Base of tritosternum ( Fig. 54 ) narrow, laciniae divided into two short lateral and one long central smooth branches.

Gnathosoma ( Fig. 54 ). Corniculi horn-like, internal malae smooth and longer than corniculi. Hypostomal setae h1 needle-like and long (ca 24–25 µm), h2 short, robust and marginally serrate (ca 6–7 µm), h3 (ca 13–14 µm) long and needle-like, h4 short and marginally serrate (ca 7–8 µm). Fixed digit of chelicera longer than movable digit, with a triangular apical process and a large sensory cavity, both digits without visible teeth. Internal sclerotised node present ( Fig. 54 ). Trochanter of palp bearing one long, robust and marginally serrate seta and one short and marginally serrate ventral seta, other setae on palp needle-like. Epistome marginally serrate ( Fig. 54 ).

Legs ( Figs 55–58 ). Leg I with a small ambulacral claw, all legs bearing needle-like setae and marginally serrate setae. Femora II–IV bearing large ventral spurs.

Male. Length of idiosoma 960‒970 µm, width 780‒810 µm. Sternal shield ornamented by some oval pits. The positions of six pairs of sternal setae as in Fig. 59 . Sternal setae St1-St3 ca 7–8 µm, St4-St5 ca 11–12 µm long. Genital shield circular and placed between coxae IV. Other characters same as in female.

Etymology. The new species is named after the island where it was collected.

Remarks. The genus Pulchellaobovella currently includes six species. Two species ( P. andrassyi ( Hirschmann & Zirngiebl-Nicol, 1972) and P. denticulata ( Hirschmann & Zirngiebl-Nicol, 1972) were described from Chile, one species ( P. ceylonensis ( Zirngiebl-Nicol & Hirschmann, 1972) was found in Sri Lanka and other one species ( P. foraminosa ( Hiramatsu, 1979) was described from Japan. Pulchellaobovella pulchella ( Berlese, 1904) is known from several countries in Europe, and P. graeca ( Kontschán, 2010b) comb. nov. was reported from Greece. Three of these species ( P. andrassyi , P. ceylonensis and P. foraminosa ) have a rounded anterior margin of the genital shield in the females; a triangular apical process occurs in P. pulchella , and a crown-like anterior process in P. foraminosa . The peaked anterior margin of the scutiform genital shield in females occurs only in the new species and in P. graeca . The characters distinguishing these two species are summarised in Table 2 .

Notes on the genus Pulchellaobovella. Hirschmann (1979) established the genus Pulchellaobovella, with type species Pulchellaobovella pulchella ( Berlese, 1904) for the species that previously formed the Uroobovella pulchella -group. Several Uropodina specialists (like Athias-Binche 1988, Athias-Binche & Habersaat 1988, Błoszyk 1999), placed the type and other similar species into the genus Janetiella , despite the fact that Berlese (1913: 85) and Hirschmann (1989: 146) had pointed out that Janetiella Berlese, 1904 (Uropodina) is a junior homonym of Janetiella Keiffer, 1898 (Diptera) . Hence Hirschmann (1989) suggested the generic name Pulchellaobovella for these species. Athias-Binche & Habersaat (1988) and Błoszyk (1999) mentioned the species Uroobovella pyriformis ( Berlese, 1920) as Janetiella pyriformis , but this species differs in several characters (like shape of idiosoma, setaetions, etc) from the known species of Pulchellaobovella. According to Hirschmann’s (1993) subgeneric system and our observations we can not agree that Uroobovella pyriformis ( Berlese, 1920) belongs in same genus as P. pulchella .

In his later works, Hirschmann (1993) and his co-workers (Wiśniewski 1993, Wiśniewski & Hirschmann 1993) placed all the species of Pulchellaobovella back into the large genus Uroobovella , forming the pulchella species group. However, Pulchellaobovella differs from Uroobovella in the shape of the idiosoma, shape of the peritreme, dorsal and ventral setation, and ornamentation ( Table 3 ).

Figures

FIGURES 48 – 51. Pulchellaobovella madagascarica sp. nov. holotype, female. 48. Body in dorsal view. 49. Caudal part of dorsal body. 50. Body in ventral view. 51. Caudal part of ventral body.

FIGURES 52 – 59. Pulchellaobovella madagascarica sp. nov. holotype, female. 52. Intercoxal area. 53. Genital shield of a paratype. 54. Ventral view of gnathosoma, palp, tritosternum, epistome and chelicerae. 55. Leg I. 56. Leg II. 57. Leg III. 58. Leg IV. 59. Intercoxal area of male paratype.

Tables

TABLE 2. Morphological differences between Pulchellaobovella graeca Kontschán, 2010 and P. madagascarica sp. nov.

	P. graeca	P. madagascarica
Setae j1	wider and longer than other dorsal setae	similar in shape and length to other dorsal setae
Distance between setae j1	close together	widely separated
Surface of dorsal and ventral shields	covered by oval pits	covered by irregular pits
Shape of pits on surface of coxae I	oval	irregular