Laqueaturopoda brasiliana, 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 : 320-323

Laqueaturopoda brasiliana sp. n.

( Figs 9–16 )

Diagnosis. Dorsal setae smooth and needle-like, marginal setae serrate and pilose marginally. Genital shield of female covered by web-like sculptural pattern anteriorly. Ventral setae smooth and needle-like. Ornamentation on marginal, dorsal and ventral shields absent. Peritreme hook-form.

Material examined. Holotype: Female. Brazil, Itatiaia National Park , Araucaria forest, from moss, 12.12.1992 Leg. J. BALOGH. Paratype: one female and seven males . Locality and date same as holotype.

Description. Female. Length of idiosoma 850–880 µm, width 710–740 µm (n = 2). Shape oval, posterior margin rounded.

Dorsal idiosoma ( Fig. 9 ). Marginal and dorsal shields completely separated. Dorsal shield hypertrichous, all dorsal setae smooth and needle-like. (c. 45–50) Setae of marginal shield situated on central and marginal part of the former. Setae on central part needle-like and distally serrate and setae on margins of marginal shield needle-like, with pilose margins. Margin of dorsal shield undulate ( Fig. 10 ). Marginal and dorsal shields without ornamentation.

Ventral idiosoma ( Fig. 11 ). Ornamentation on sternal and ventral shields absent. Sternal setae short, smooth and needle-like.(c. 10–15) St1 placed near to the anterior margin of genital shield, St2 on the level of posterior margin of coxae II, St3 on the level central region of coxae III, St4 on the level of anterior margin while St5 on the level of posterior margin of coxae IV. Ventral setae smooth and needle-like, their length follows: V1 c. 30–31, V2 c. 19–20, V3 c. 46–50, V469–75, V5 c. 54–57, tral view of gnathosoma, 15 = epistome, 16 = sternigenital region of male paratype (scale bar: 100 µm) ad1 c. 12–13, ad2 c. 31–32, pa c. 40. Their places illustrated on Fig. 11 . Stigmata situated between coxae II and III. Peritreme hook-shaped ( Fig. 12 ). Genital shield scutiform, with web-like sculptural pattern and without process on its apical margin. Base of tritosternum narrow, tritosternal laciniae subdivided into smooth branches ( Fig. 13 ).

Gnathosoma ( Fig. 14 ). Corniculi horn-like, internal malae smooth and shorter than corniculi. Hypostomal setae are the follows: h1 smooth and situated near the anterior margins of gnathosoma, h2 smooth five times shorter than h1, h3 smooth and two times longer than h2, h4 as long as h2 and its shape antler-like. Epistome with serrate margins and subdivided into three branches apically ( Fig. 15 ). Chelicerae not clearly visible.

Male. Length of idiosoma 780–880 µm, width 680–800 µm (n = 7). Shape oval, posterior margin rounded.

Dorsal idiosoma. Ornamentation and chaetotaxy of dorsal shield as in female.

Ventral idiosoma ( Fig. 16 ). Sternal and ventral shields without ornamentation. Sternal setae short and needle-like, their situation and shape illustrated on Fig. 16 . Genital shield oval, placed between coxae III and IV and bearing two long and needle-like setae.

Gnathosoma. Similar to that of the female.

Nymphs and larvae. Unknown.

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

Remark. The pilose marginal setae are unique among the species of the genus Laqueaturopoda HIRSCHMANN, 1979 .

Notes on the genus Laqueaturopoda . HIRSCHMANN (1979) established the genus Laqueaturopoda with the type species Laqueturopoda laqueta ( HIRSCHMANN, 1972), by original designation. Earlier, Uropodina specialists placed similar species into the genus Cilliba v. HAYDEN, 1826, ignoring several characters different from the Cilliba species (e.g. shape of the peritreme). Later HIRSCHMANN (1993) and his co-workers (WIŚNIEWSKI 1993, WIŚNIEWSKI & HIRSCHMANN 1993) placed every Laqueaturopoda species into the large catch-all genus Uropoda , forming the laqueata species group, which contains six Neotropical species. ATHIAS-BINCHE and BŁOSZYK (1988) described a similar genus from the Australian region and named it Australocilliba ATHIAS-BINCHE et BŁOSZYK, 1988 . I consider the Australian genus Australocilliba and the European genus Cilliba v. HAYDEN, 1826 closely related to Laqueaturopoda , and belonging to the family Cillibidae . The three genera differ in the shapes of h1 setae, genital shield of female, peritremes, corniculi and internal malae (Table 1).

In my opinion, the characters presented in Table 1 are synapomorphies for the genus Laqueaturopoda , hence I suggest the resurrection of this name.

Figures

Figs 9–16. Laqueaturopoda brasiliana sp. n.: 9 = female, holotype, dorsal view, 10 = lateral part of dorsal idiosoma with marginal setae, 11 = ventral view, 12 = peritreme, 13 = tritosternum, 14 = ven-