TO THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE GENUS GEPHYRAZETES (ACARI, ORIBATIDA, MOCHLOZETIDAE)

Sergey G Ermilov,Josef Starý

doi:10.37828/em.2018.16.4

Abstract

The oribatid mite genus Gephyrazetes (Oribatida, Mochlozetidae) is recorded for the first time in the Ethiopian region; one new species is described from soil and litter of Korup National Park in Cameroon. Gephyrazetes umukusumae sp. nov. differs from G. fasciatus Hirauchi, 1999 by the larger body size, truncate lamellar cusps, setiform bothridial setae, very small notogastral porose areas, paraanal position of adanal lyrifissures, presence of four pairs of genital setae and tuberculate lateral parts of prodorsum, and absence of dorsosejugal and sublamellar porose areas. Revised generic diagnosis and the data on distribution and ecology of Gephyrazetes species are presented.

Highlights

The oribatid mite genus Gephyrazetes (Acari, Oribatida, Mochlozetidae) is monotypic, the single known species, Gephyrazetes fasciatus was proposed by Hirauchi (1999) as a representative of the family Ceratozetidae, known only from Japan (Hirauchi 1999)
Among the material collected from Korup National Park of Cameroon, we found one new species of Gephyrazetes; the genus is registered in the Ethiopian region for the first time
The main goal of this paper is to describe and illustrate a new species, revise generic diagnosis and give information on distribution and ecology of Gephyrazetes

Summary

Introduction

The oribatid mite genus Gephyrazetes (Acari, Oribatida, Mochlozetidae) is monotypic, the single known species, Gephyrazetes fasciatus was proposed by Hirauchi (1999) as a representative of the family Ceratozetidae, known only from Japan (Hirauchi 1999). Among the material collected from Korup National Park of Cameroon, we found one new species of Gephyrazetes; the genus is registered in the Ethiopian region for the first time. The main goal of this paper is to describe and illustrate a new species, revise generic diagnosis and give information on distribution and ecology of Gephyrazetes. This work is part of our study on the oribatid fauna of Cameroon Ermilov & Koehler 2017) This work is part of our study on the oribatid fauna of Cameroon (e.g. Ermilov & Koehler 2017)

Material and Methods

Methods