Additions to the Ecuadorian, Ethiopian and Nepalese ptyctimous mite fauna (Acari, Oribatida), with description of two new species and remarks on some known species

Abstract

Annotated checklists of identified ptyctimous mite taxa from Ecuador (7 species, 6 genera, 4 families), Ethiopia (13 species, 6 genera, 4 families) and Nepal (11 species, 7 genera, 4 families) are provided. Acrotritia refracta and Phthiracarus pygmaeus are recorded for the first time in Ecuador; Indotritia krakatauensis, Acrotritia vestita, Arphthicarus inaequus and Plonaphacarus tanzicus are recorded for the first time in Ethiopia; Protoribotritia oligotricha, Acrotritia duplicata and Phthiracarus bryobius are recorded for the first time in Nepal. Two new species, Oribotritia multisetosa Niedbała sp. nov. and Plonaphacarus martensi Niedbała sp. nov., are described from Ecuador and Nepal, respectively. Morphological and/or taxonomical remarks for Ar. inaequus (Niedbała, 1984), Indotritia bellingeri Niedbała & Schatz, 1996, Plonaphacarus rybalovi Niedbała, 2011 and Pl. tanzicus (Mahunka, 1993) are presented.

http://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:DC0E4649-9D0F-4222-A197-6E818CDE6D1C

Keywords:

• Oribatida
• ptyctimous mites
• fauna
• checklist
• new species
• new record
• Ecuador
• Ethiopia
• Nepal

Acknowledgements

We cordially thank Dr Giovanni Onore (Pontifical Catholic University, Ecuador), L.G. Rybalova (Moscow, Russia), A.I. Bastrakov (Institute of Ecological and Evolutionary Problems, RAS, Moscow, Russia), Dr J. Martens (Johannes Gutenberg Universität, Mainz, Germany) and Dr W. Schawaller (Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde, Stuttgart, Germany) for sampling assistance. We cordially thank two anonymous reviewers for the valuable comments.

Funding

Ethiopian work was performed within the framework of the Joint Russian–Ethiopian Biological Expedition financially supported by the Russian Academy of Sciences; we are grateful to our Project Coordinators Dr A. Darkov and A.G. Yosef for management of the expedition. Nepalese work was supported by the Feldbausch Foundation and the Wagner foundation at Fachbereich Biologie of Mainz University.

Notes

1. Results of the Himalaya Expeditions (1983) of Dr J. Martens.