Notophthiracarus medius, Niedbała & Starý, 2016

Niedbała, W. & Starý, J., 2016, Six new species of ptyctimous mites (Acari: Oribatida) from Madagascar, Acarologia 56 (4), pp. 485-496 : 491-494

Notophthiracarus medius n. sp.

( Figures 5 )

Description

Measurements of holotype — Prodorsum: length 232, width 162, height 86; length of prodorsal setae: sensillus (ss) 114, interlamellar (in) 116, lamellar (le) 15, rostral (ro) 48, exobothridial (ex) 18; notogaster: length 460, width 323, height 288; notogastral setae: c 1 109, c 1 / c 1 -d 1 =0.8, h 1 106, ps 1 96; genitoaggenital plate 114 × 86, anoadanal plate 185 × 96.

Measurement of paratype — Prodorsum: length 187, height 76; notogaster: length 359, height 202.

Species of medium size. Body colour brown.

Prodorsum — Surface of prodorsum reticulate but in posterior part with small irregular alveoles connected with weak lines. Lateral carinae distinct and long. Sigillar fields poorly marked, median longer than laterals. Sensilli (ss) long, bacilliform, without head, curved, covered with small spines, similar in shape to notogastral setae. Interlamellar setae (in) robust, erect, covered with distinct spines in distal half, similar to notogastral setae. Lamellar setae (le) thick, short, rostral setae (ro) spiniform, rough; relative length of prodorsal setae: in> ss> ro> ex> le.

Notogaster — Surface of notogaster covered with small alveoles connected with weak lines, resembling reticulation. Notogastral setae robust, bacilliform of medium length (c 1 <c 1 -d 1), their distal half covered with small spines. Notogastral setae c 1 and c 3 situated close to anterior margin of notogaster, setae c 2 remote far from this margin. Vestigial notogastral setae f 1 not visible, vestigial setae f 2 and two pairs of lyrifissures ia and im present but hardly perceptible.

Ventral region — Setae h of subcapitular mentum shorter than distance between them. Surface of genitoaggenital and anoadanal plates reticulated. Formula of minute genital setae: 5: 4. Anoadanal plates each with 5 pairs of setae, two pairs of anal setae thinner and three pairs of adanal setae thicker, adanal setae ad 1 and ad 2 longest.

Legs — Setation of complete type. Setae d on femora I bifurcate and situated at distal end of article.

Material examined — Holotype is deposited at DATE from locus typicus: Central Madagascar, Andasibe – Mantadia National Park , Mantadia , circuit Rianasoa, path to Chute sacreØ, 29. I. 2015, evergreen rain forest, latitude 18°50’07" S, longitude 48°26’22" E, altitude about 1000 m, sifted sample of leaf litter, Winkler apparatus extraction, leg. P. Ba ˇnaˇr and E. M. Rabotoson, and one paratype is deposited at ISB from the same locality.

Etymology — The specific name of the new species medius is Latin for "intermediate", "between" and refers to the similarity of the new species to two Notophthiracarus species N. lineatus Niedbała et Starý, 2015 and N. reticulatus Niedbała et Starý, 2014 .

Comparison — The new species is similar to N. lineatus in the shape of the notogastral surface, which is covered by small foveolae connected with weak lines. It is also similar to N. reticulatus in the overall image of reticulation on the surface of notogaster.. New species is distinguishable from N. lineatus by baciliform shape of sensilli (versus dilated distally), longer adanal setae ad 3 (versus minute adanal setae) and bifurcated setae d of femora I (versus not bifurcate). The new species is distinguishable from N. reticulatus also by bacilliform sensilli (versus dilated head of sensilli), erect interlamellar setae (in) and minute lamellar setae (le) shorter than rostral setae (ro), (versus almost procumbent interlamellar setae (in) and lamellar setae (le) longer than rostral (ro) ones, by setae h of mentum shorter than distance of their insertion points h <h -h (versus longer setae that distance of their insertions, h> h - h; by adanal setae ad 2 of anoadanal plates, which are remote from paraxial margin of plates (versus location of adanal setae ad 2 near paraxial margin). ( Niedbała and Starý 2014c, 2015b).

Figures

FIGURE 5: Notophthiracarus medius n. sp. (holotype): A – prodorsum, dorsal view; B – fragment of surface of median part of prodorsum; C – fragment of surface of posterior part of prodorsum; D – prodorsum, lateral view; E – opisthosoma, lateral view; F – fragment of surface of notogaster; G – mentum of subcapitulum; H – left genitoaggenital plate; I – left anoadanal plate; J – anterior part of paraxial margin of right genitoaggenital plate; K – trochanter and femur of leg I.