Tumerozetes, Hammer, 1966

Colloff, Matthew J., 2022, First records of Tumerozetidae and Nodocepheidae from Australia, with descriptions of new taxa and a re-assessment of the Polypterozetoidea (Oribatida, Brachypylina), Zootaxa 5194 (1), pp. 33-57 : 37

Redefinition of Tumerozetes

Definition. Tumerozetidae with broad, convex interlamellar plates bearing setae in, in addition to lamellae. With well-developed anteriomedian projection of notogastral plate covering central part of prodorsum and connected with paired longitudinal ridges on notogaster.

Remarks. Hammer (1966, p. 81) defined Tumerozetes as follows: propodosoma and hysterosoma fused. Propodosoma swollen. Lateral edges of lamellae with two vertical and medially concave plates fused anteriorly in the midline and bearing setae in. Setae le on apices of long cusps, reaching apex of rostrum. Bothridia pointing laterally; bothridial setae hyaline with finger-like branches on end of long stalk. Pedoctectum I well-developed. A ‘chitinous figure’ situated at the transition between prodorsum and notogaster, consisting of a short, narrow anterior part and two long, narrow longitudinal ridges on the notogaster. With humeral projections. With 10 pairs of notogastral setae; seven along lateral margins, three on posterior border. With six pairs of genital, one pair of aggenital, two pairs of anal, and two pairs of adanal setae. Legs monodactylous. With thick strings of cerotegument.

A qualification of Hammer’s (1966) definition is that the interlamellar plates (the two ‘vertical and medially concave plates’ she refers to) are not necessarily fused anteriorly and may simply be adjacent or slightly overlapping ( Figures 2a and 2b ). Also, a large, heart-shaped anteriomedian projection of the notogastral plate is present in T. roughleyi sp. nov. ( Figure 1a ) and T. bifurcatus (as illustrated by Norton and Behan-Pelletier 2009, Figure 15.51E therein, labelled ‘anteriomedial projection’). However, its configuration in the four other Tumerozetes spp. is less clear. This structure was referred to by Hammer (1966, p. 83) as the anterior part of the ‘chitinous figure at the transition between the propodosoma and the hysterosoma’ (the ‘chitinous figure’ also includes the paired notogastral ridges). The anteriomedian projection was not mentioned in the family definition by Woas (2002). In T. circularis Hammer 1966 and T. parallelus Hammer 1966 it appears to be a rectangular structure with lateral, hornlike extensions; in T. indistinctus Hammer 1966 it is short and ovoid and in T. pumilis Hammer 1966 it is indistinct, seemingly covered in cerotegument.

Figures

FIGURE 1. Tumerozetes roughleyi sp. nov. (a) dorsal aspect; (b) ventral aspect); (c) lateral aspect; (d) detail of seta le. Scale bar = 100 μm

FIGURE 2. Tumerozetes roughleyi sp. nov. (a) anterior aspect; (b) bothridia and interlamellar plates; (c) waxy tegument on rostrum; (d) chelicera; (e) palp; (f) rutellum; (g) anal and genital plates; (h) bothridium. Scale bars: a–c, g, h = 50 μm; e, f = 15 μm