Clivosurella brasilica, Kontschán, 2010

Kontschán, J., 2010, New And Little Known Uropodina Species From Brazil (Acari: Mesostigmata), Acta Zoologica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae 56 (4), pp. 317-334 : 331-333

Clivosurella brasilica sp. n.

( Figs 39–42 )

Diagnosis. Central region of dorsal shield elevated from the other parts of dorsum and bearing smooth and needle-like setae and irregular, small pits. Marginal setae smooth and needle-like, situated on small protuberances. Dorsal and marginal ornamentation characteristic web-like. Pygidial shield present. Anterior surface of genital shield with alveolar pits in female. Ventral setae smooth and needle-like. Ventral shield with alveolar pits.

Material examined. Holotype: Female. Brazil, Pantanal, Chapada Dos Guimaraes, forest, from leaf litter, 09.12.1992 leg. J. BALOGH. Paratype: four female (two in alcohol, two in slides) . Locality and date same as holotype.

Description. Female. Length of idiosoma 340–350 µm, width 210–220 µm (n = 5). Shape pentangular.

Dorsal idiosoma ( Fig. 39 ). Marginal and dorsal shields fused anteriorly. Central region of dorsal shield elevated from the other parts of dorsum and bearing smooth (c. 6–7) and needle-like setae and irregular small pits. Marginal setae smooth (c. 8–10) and needle-like as well and situated on small protuberences. Marginal shield subdivided into two lateral parts and one pygidial shield. Pygidial shield trapezoid, bearing alveolar pits and three pairs of needle-like setae (c. 5–6) on small protuberances.

Ventral idiosoma ( Fig. 40 ). Ornamentation on sternal shield absent. Sternal setae short (c. 4–5), smooth and needle-like. St1 absent, St2 on the level of central region of coxae II, St3 on the level of central region of coxae III, St4 on the level of anterior margin while St5 on the level of posterior margin of coxae IV. One large, irregular depression present posteriorly to the basis of genital shield, containing several small, oval pits. Ventral setae smooth and needle-like (c. 6–7). Ventral shield covered by alveolar pits. Stigmata between coxae II and III. Peritremes straight. Genital shield linguliform, anteriorly covered by alveolar pits and without process on its apical margin. Base of tritosternum wide, tritosternal laciniae subdivided into four smooth branches ( Fig. 42 ).

Gnathosoma ( Fig. 42 ). Corniculi horn-like, internal malae longer than corniculi and their margins pilose. Hypostomal setae are the follows: h1 smooth and situated near the anterior margins of gnathosoma, h2 not clearly visible, h3 four times shorter than h1, h4 as long as h3 and apically serrate. Base of epistome subtriangular, with serrate margins, apical part long and smooth. Movable digit shorter than fixed digit.

Male, nymphs and larvae. Unknown.

Etymology. The name of the new species refers to the country where it was collected.

Notes on the genus Clivosurella HIRSCHMANN, 1979 . Like to the genus Longicarinaturella , the genus Clivosurella (type species Clivosurella clivosa ( HIRSCHMANN, 1972) by original designation) was a species group ( clivosa species group) of the genus Discourella and was elevated to full generic rank by HIRSCHMANN (1979). However, this newly described genus differs by several characters (shape of idiosoma and of the caudal region of the dorsal idiosoma) from the genus Discourella (Table 3); later HIRSCHMANN (1993) and his co-workers (WIŚNIEWSKI 1993, WIŚNIEWSKI & HIRSCHMANN 1993) placed it back into the genus Discourella , as the clivosa species group, which now contains eight species from the Neotropical region ( Venezuela and Brasil). Clivosurella is endemic to the Neotropics and belongs in the family Discourellidae , with the previously mentioned genera Longicarinaturella and Discourella . Clivosurella is well-defined and thus easyily distinguished from the other similar genera, hence here I resurrect the genus.

KEY TO THE KNOWN CLIVOSURELLA SPECIES (only for the females)

1 Genital shield bearing ornamentation 2

– Genital shield without ornamentation 4

2 Whole surface of genital shield ornamented 3

– Genital shield ornamented anteriorly C. brasilica sp. n.

3 Depression on ventral shield near anterior region of anal platelets with irregular pits C. venezuelensis (HUŢU, 1987) comb. n.

– Depression on ventral shield near anterior region of anal platelets without pits C. simonbolivari (HUŢU, 1987) comb. n.

4 Genital shield linguliform C. frondosa ( HIRSCHMANN, 1972)

– Genital shield scutiform 5

5 Ventral shield with alveolar pits C. deraiophoroides ( HIRSCHMANN, 1972)

– Ventral shield without alveolar pits C. porosa ( HIRSCHMANN, 1972)

Notes to the key. Unfortunately only the males of the three species are known ( C. brasiliensis ( HIRSCHMANN, 1972) ; C. clivosa ( HIRSCHMANN, 1972) , and C. spumans ( HIRSCHMANN, 1972)) . Two of them ( C. brasiliensis and C. spumans ) bear smooth, short and needle-like setae with normal setal basis, but the homologous setae are placed on small protuberences in the new species and these setae are marginally pilose in species C. clivosa .

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Acknowledgements – I would like to thank Dr SÁNDOR MAHUNKA, Dr CSABA CSUZDI and Mr ZSOLT UJVÁRI for their valuable comments on the manuscript. I am also grateful to Dr OWEN SEEMAN for the language polishing of the manuscript.

Figures

Figs 39–42. Clivosurella brasilica sp. n.: 39 = female, holotype, dorsal view, 40 = ventral view, 41 = lateral view, 42 = ventral view of gnathosoma, tritosternum and chelicerae (scale bar: 100 µm)