A new species of Teneriffiidae (Acariformes: Prostigmata) from Ethiopia

ABSTRACT

Teneriffiidae (Prostigmata: Anystoidea) is a poorly studied family of predatory mites that are recognized among its superfamily by thick raptorial palps, weakly marked naso, and rosette-like bothridial organs on prodorsum. In the present paper, a new species – Teneriffia aethiopica sp. nov. – is described from the soil material collected in Ethiopia. It is a relatively large species (about 1 mm); almost all coxal fields (I–III) have at least five epimeral setae; prodorsal shield and palpal oncophysis are present; ventral opisthosoma does not exhibit neotrichy, i.e. there are only six to seven pairs of aggenital setae ag present; pseudanal setal series is represented by four pairs of setae ps; claws on tarsi I–II are strongly bipectinate without empodia, and claws on tarsi III–IV are slightly serrate with smooth, hook-like empodia (almost the half of the size of each claw). Although representing unique characters, the rest of its morphological features suggest that it may form a group with members of the two currently defined genera Heteroteneriffia Hirst, 1925 and Teneriffia Thor, 1911 of which further study and re-examination have recently been proposed; hence, the present paper contributes some new knowledge that may be helpful in a future revision of this intriguing family.

http://www.zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:CF19FCED-1D3F-456E-94D0-F66D37619CE2http://www.zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:AE8BDA78-B2C6-45F8-9EAF-D61CF2B27B32

KEYWORDS:

• Acari
• acarology
• African biodiversity
• soil fauna
• taxonomy

Acknowledgments

We thank Franz Wachtel (Grünwald, Germany) for providing specimens from Ethiopia for our further examination, that is, a scarce but valuable material without this work would not have been prepared. We would like to cordially thank all Reviewers for their time spending to read the original versions of the manuscript and their helpful suggestions which improved the quality of the herein paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).