Malaconothrus Berlese, 1904

Miko, Ladislav, 2019, Oribatid mites (Acarina, Oribatida) from French Guyana II. Two new species from superfamily Crotonioidea Thorell, 1876, Acarologia 59 (3), pp. 348-363 : 349

Genus Malaconothrus Berlese, 1904

Genus has global distribution, with 84 known species ( Subías, 2004, 2018). Two more species were described recently from Africa ( Ermilov and Starý, 2019). The concept and generic definitions within the family Malaconothridae have been reviewed for several times ( Weigmann, 1997, 2006; Subías, 2018; Colloff, 2013; Colloff and Cameron, 2013). As a

result, the new definition of the genus was proposed ( Colloff and Cameron, 2013) and species have been grouped into 5 quite well defined species groups: plumosus, opisthoseta, crispus, monodactylus and marginatus group (Colloff, 2013). The species found in the Kaw mountains clearly belongs to the “ plumosus ” group, which is defined by Colloff (2013) as

“… monodactylous species with broad, well-developed notogastral ridges; a broad, subrectangular rostrum; barbed or smooth, thick rostral setae; five pairs of genital setae, often thick and dilated basally, with g 5 considerably longer than the others and further from g 4 than the distance between g 4 and g 3. The interlamellar seta is often very short, sub-equal in length

to the exobothridial seta or only twice as long”. Nevertheless, none of the 5 species known from Central and South America is similar to the new species. The only similar species are known from Japan ( Yamamoto 1996; Yamamoto and Aoki, 1997), and they belong to the same subgroup according to Colloff (2013). Recently, Ermilov and Starý (2019) described two species from Cameroon with very similar general appearance to the new species. However, Malaconothrus found in French Guyana clearly differs from all these species and is described below as a new species. The differences to similar species are discussed in discussion and in attached determination key.