Annotated checklist of Georgian oribatid mites
Author
Murvanidze, Maka
Author
Mumladze, Levan
text
Zootaxa
2016
2016-03-14
4089
1
1
81
journal article
51607
10.11646/zootaxa.4089.1.1
56eebc91-bbc7-4564-a0f7-901e5e31480e
1175-5326
257567
5478C7E2-8776-4747-9C0F-2B382DD19AD9
Oribatula (O.) beccus
Djaparidze, 1990
Distribution in
Georgia
.
different landscape zones (see remark)
Global distribution.
Caucasus
Ecology.
Different soil
types
Remark.
O. beccus
from
Georgia
was descibed by Djaparidze (1990a) without indication of exact finding sites. Djaparidze describes the species as numerous in different landscape zones: dry lowland subtropics, montane forests with moderate humid climate, high montane forests and alpine meadows. The presence of the
holotype
in the collections of the Institute of Zoology is also indicated, however, we could find neither
holotype
, nor
paratypes
.
In the Catalogue this species is placed as a synonym of
Oribatula (O.) tibialis alifera
Subías, 2000
.
O. (O.) tibialis alifera
was created by Subías (2000) as
nomina nuova
with for the earlier described species
O. tibialis
alata
Iordansky, 1991
as a synonym to
O. (O.) tibialis alifera
.
Within this publication, no arguments are provided for such synonymy. It is only mentioned that the species described by Iordansky (1991) was found on Iberian Peninsula too (Subías 2000).
O. (O.) beccus
and
O. (O.) tibialis
alata
are similar in having sparsely barbed lamellar setae and clearly protruding pteromorphae, however, there as a notable difference in body size between them: 580– 600 µm for
O. (O.) beccus
and 408 µm for
O. (O.) tibialis
alata
.
Considering this difference as important, we regard
O
. (
O.
)
beccus
as a valid species and reject its synonymy with
Oribatula (O.) tibialis alifera
.