Macrodinychus Berlese, 1917

Kontschán, Jenő, 2011, Notes on the family Macrodinychidae (Acari: Uropodina) with description of two new species, Journal of Natural History 45 (25 - 26), pp. 1619-1636 : 1621-1622

Genus Macrodinychus Berlese, 1917

Macrodinychus Berlese, 1917: 12 .

Macrodinychus: Wiśniewski and Hirschmann 1993: 32 , Hirschmann 1993: 330–331, Wiśniewski 1993b: 383, Farrier and Hennessey 1996: 162.

Diagnosis

See under Family.

Distribution

See under Family.

Systematic note

Hirschmann (1979) used three different categories in his specific Uropodina-system: “Ganggattung”, “Stadiengattung” and “Stadiengruppen”. However, Hirschmann’s categories are not recognized by the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature ( ICZN 1999) so in the present work “Ganggattung” is regarded as genus, “Stadiengattung” as subgenus and “Stadiengruppen” as species-group (see Kontschán 2008).

First, Hirschmann (1975a) subdivided the genus Macrodinychus into two “Stadiengattungen”, Macrodinychus and Monomacrodinychus , on the basis of the denticulation of chelicerae, which was often used in his catalogue (see Hirschmann 1993). The shape of the chelicerae is diverse within a genus, because modification of chelicerae is the result of an adaptation of feeding habits ( Evans 1972), so its taxonomic value is questionable. For this reason, this difference is insufficient to justify the separation of these two groups.

Some years later Hirschmann (1979) mentioned Macrodinychus as a “Ganggattung”, with Macrodinychus Berlese, 1917 , Bregetovamacrodinychus Hirschmann, 1979 , Loksamacrodinychus Hirschmann, 1979 and Baloghmacrodinychus Hirschmann, 1979 as “Stadiengattungen”. Although Hirschmann (1979) discussed these groups as subgenera of the genus Macrodinychus , in the same paper (on pages 69 and 70) he refers to Macrodinychus Berlese, 1917 , Bregetovamacrodinychus Hirschmann, 1979 , Loksamacrodinychus Hirschmann, 1979 and Baloghmacrodinychus Hirschmann, 1979 as genera as well. This subdivision was based on the shape of the peritreme, of which four types are known in the genus Macrodinychus (see the key).

According to my assumption Macrodinychus is a Uropodina genus distributed worldwide and comprising four subgenera; accordingly I consider Macrodinychus Berlese, 1917 , Bregetovamacrodinychus Hirschmann, 1979 , Loksamacrodinychus Hirschmann, 1979 and Baloghmacrodinychus Hirschmann, 1979 as subgenera in the present work.