New species of the superfamily Euphthiracaroidea (Acari: Oribatida) from Madagascar and Tanzania

Abstract

Five new species of the family Euphthiracaridae are described, identified and figured from the Afrotropical region: Oribotritia breviseta sp. nov. from Andasibe National Park of Madagascar; Acrotritia paraardua sp. nov. from Vohimana Experimental Reserve, Ambohitanely Special Reserve and Andasibe National Park of Madagascar; Acrotritia paradikra sp. nov. from Ranomafana National Park and Ankarafantsika National Park of Masagascar; Microtritia diaphoros sp. nov. from the Nguru Mountains of Tanzania; and Microtritia parahauseri sp. nov from the Uluguru Mountains of Tanzania. A comparison with the most closely related species of the genera Oribotritia, Acrotritia and Microtritia is also presented.

http://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:7965FE4C-0AF8-49C4-B894-75D4EFD049BB

Keywords:

• Oribatida
• ptyctimous mites
• Euphthiracaridae
• new species
• Afrotropical

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Dr P. Baňař (Brno, Czech Republic), a renowned specialist on tropical Heteroptera, for collecting soil samples and the management of investigations during his expeditions to Madagascar, and Dr V. Grebennikov (Ottawa, Canada), a renowned coleopterologist, for collecting soil samples in various parts of Tanzania.

Additional information

Funding

The study was partly supported by the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic [Research Plan No. AV0Z606960521].