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Abstract
The morphology of juvenile and adult stages of two Neotropical oribatid mite Crotonia venetiolana sp. nov. and Crotonia flagellata (Balogh and Csiszár, Citation1963) is described and illustrated. In addition, the adult stage of C. flagellata is redescribed. Moreover, a new record of its distribution is presented (Virgin Islands, Saint Croix Island). The new species is compared with the most similar the African Crotonia lyrata Colloff, Citation1990. Both have apophyses of setae h2 far longer than the other caudal apophyses, two pairs of setae c, eight pairs of genital setae, identical epimeral setation and subequal length of setae h. This new species seems to possess features of the “capistrata” and “cophinaria” species group of Crotonia. Crotonia venetiolana sp. nov. was found in the litter of Speletia schultzii in Venezuela. Crotonia flagellata (Balogh and Csiszár, Citation1963) was found in litter under tamarind (Tamarindus indica L.) from Virgin Islands, Saint Croix, in the detritus and litter from the forest with Nothofagus pumilio and Nothofagus betuloides in Argentina, and from the seaside forest with Nothofagus sp. in Chile.
Acknowledgements
The author would like to thank Dr Ziemowit Olszanowski (Department of Animal Taxonomy and Ecology, A. Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland) for offering advice during the preparation of this paper, Dr Zbigniew Adamski (Electron and Confocal Microscope Laboratory, A. Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland) for help with SEM, and Prof. W. Niedbała, Dr W. Magowski, Ł. Kaczmarek and D. Diduszko (Department of Animal Taxonomy and Ecology, A. Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland) and Prof. J. Palacios-Vargas (Universidad Nacional Autónomia México, México) for loaned material and sample data.