Galumna lawrencei, Jacot, 1940, Jacot, 1940

Ermilov, Sergey G. & Hugo-Coetzee, Elizabeth A., 2020, Galumna capensis dissimilis Engelbrecht, 1969, a junior synonym of Galumna lawrencei Jacot, 1940 (Acari, Oribatida, Galumnidae), with remarks on type material, Zootaxa 4750 (3), pp. 441-442 : 441

The

South African oribatid mite species Galumna lawrencei Jacot, 1940 was described as Galumna maxima lawrencei by Jacot (1940). Ermilov & Hugo-Coetzee (2019) redescribed this subspecies and proposed the independence of the species. The subspecies Galumna capensis dissimilis Engelbrecht, 1969 was described by Engelbrecht (1969) from South Africa.

After studying the morphology of galumnid representatives in South Africa, the visual similarity of the morphology of G. lawrencei and G. capensis dissimilis had come to our attention.

Because we had access to the lectotype and paralectotypes of G. lawrencei and the holotype and paratypes of G. capensis dissimilis we could make a comparison of these taxa. Our conclusions are as follows:

1. The lectotype and nine paralectotypes (except one paralectotype of Pergalumna sp.—see Ermilov & Hugo-Coetzee 2019) of G. lawrencei and the holotype (accession number in National Museum, Bloemfontein: NMB 69.3, type locality: Knysna, Western Cape) and three paratypes (NMB 32.1, Port Elizabeth, Eastern Cape) of G. capensis dissimilis are morphologically identical: see “Diagnosis” of G. lawrencei , p. 582 in Ermilov & Hugo-Coetzee (2019). Thus , we propose the following taxonomic proposal: G. lawrencei Jacot, 1940 (= G. capensis dissimilis Engelbrecht, 1969 syn. nov.) .

2. The study of the type material of G. capensis dissimilis stored at the National Museum, Bloemfontein showed a mixture of two different species (mixed type-series). As we indicated above, paratypes from Port Elizabeth are identical to the holotype. Engelbrecht (1969) indicated other paratypes from George, Western Cape (NMB 233.2, two paratypes) and Gordon’s Bay , Western Cape (NMB 184.2, one paratype). However, upon inspection of the material in the collection, it was discovered that Engelbrecht also marked other paratypes (not indicated in his article). These were as follows: NMB 74.3, Knysna, Western Cape, one paratype; NMB 279.2, Orkney, Free State, one paratype; and NMB 280.5, Orkney, Free State, two paratypes. In general these paratypes are also similar to the holotype and paratypes from Port Elizabeth in basic morphological traits, but have distinct differences: anterior part of prodorsum hump-like (versus not hump-like); notogastral lyrifissures im located anteromedial to porose areas A1 and distanced from them (versus close and anterior to A1); adanal lyrifissures iad located close and slightly diagonal to posterior half of anal plates (versus close and parallel to anterior half of anal plates); also the majority of these paratypes have clearly larger body size and comparatively longer porose areas Aa and anal and adanal setae. Hence, in our subjective opinion, the paratypes of G. capensis dissimilis with numbers NMB 184.2, NMB 233.2, NMB 74.3, NMB 279.2, NMB 280.5 were wrongly identified initially, however, according to the rules of Zoological nomenclature (Article 72.4), these specimens will remain with the status of paratypes of G. capensis dissimilis , but they will be labeled additionally as “ Galumna sp.” .