Dissorhina cretensis n. sp. and some other remarkable oribatid mites (Acari: Oribatida) from Crete, Greece

Opusc. Zool. Budapest, 2008, 39: 43–51 Dissorhina cretensis n. sp. and some other remarkable oribatid mites (Acari: Oribatida) from Crete, Greece S. Mahunka1 Abstract. Newly collected and identified oribatids from Crete are studied and a list of the hitherto known species is provided. Altogether 37 species are enumerated from several sites of the island, among them 23 newly determined. One species new to science, Dissorhina cretensis n. sp., is described and three known, but rare species – Chamobates dentotutorii Shaldybina, 1969, Ocesobates boedvarssoni (Sellnick, 1974) and Humerobates rostrolamellatus Grandjean, 1936 – are described and/or commented and illustrated. With 18 figures. INTRODUCTION T he oribatid fauna of Greece, especially that of the Greek islands, is rather poorly known. This raises objections when someone aims to get to know and investigate the origin of the oribatid fauna of the entire Balkan Peninsula, including its historical changes and possible movements (see also Mahunka & Mahunka-Papp, 2008). The ultimate goal of our research is the comprehensive description of the already detected, but till now not fully understood north-south migration of this little animals. Our knowledge regarding the oribatids of the Balkan Peninsula is mostly based on the collectings carried out by Beier in 1929, and more recently by Hauser in 1970–1980, as well as on the collected materials elaborated by Sellnick (1931) and Mahunka (1974, 1977a, 1977b, 1979, 1982, 2001). However, the data on the fauna of the Greek islands are almost exclusively based on the collecting activities by Hauser. All the data on the oribatids of Greece were summarised by Flogaitis (1992). According to him, 220 species have hitherto been recorded from the whole country. Unfortunately, this sum is not exact since there are several incorrect data in his list. For instance, many species are listed twice, the identified “cf.” and also species referred to as genus name plus “sp.” are both contained in it). The above mentioned species and the identification of several further ones are therefore rather uncertain. On the other hand, a species already reported from Greece, Papillacarus aciculatus (Berlese, 1905), is omitted from the enumeration. The real list should contain about 200 oribatid species only. As for Crete, no more than 14 species have been reported so far (Mahunka, 1979, 1982). This number must be considered a small fraction of the expected species from that great island. As a result of our recent investigations, I can add 23 further species to the oribatid fauna of Crete. One of them, Dissorhina cretensis sp. n. proved to be new to science, further twelve species for the fauna of Greece, and nine species for the fauna of Crete. The number of the oribatid species known from Crete amounts to 37. Among them, poorly known and rare species have also been observed, like Chamobates dentotutorii Shaldybina, 1969, Ocesobates boedvarssoni (Sellnick, 1974) and Humerobates rostrolamellatus (Grandjean, 1936). Hereunder I give some remarks on their morphology, relatedness or kinship. Similarly to my earlier papers, I follow the system of Marshall et al. (1987) based on that of Grandjean (1954, 1965), but with some modifications introduced by Subías (2004, 2008) and Weigmann (2006). As to the descriptions, the morphological terminology of Grandjean was used with some modifications concerning the studied groups or organs (e.g. Mahunka & Zombori, 1985; Norton et al., 1997; Mahunka & Mahunka-Papp, 2001; Niedbała, 1992, and the before mentioned publications). _______________________________________________________________________________________________________ 1 Prof. Dr. Sándor Mahunka, Magyar Természettudományi Múzeum Állattára és MTA Zootaxonómiai Kutatócsoport (Department of Zoology, Hungarian Natural History Museum, and Zootaxonomy Research Group of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), H-1088 Budapest, Baross u. 13, Hungary. E-mail: Mahunka: Dissorhina cretensis sp. n. from Crete MATERIAL AND METHODS The most recent studies on the oribatid fauna of Crete, including my work and that of my collaborators (Luise Mahunka-Papp, József Világi and Cecilia Világi-Szeredi), are based on the materials collected by the former researchers of the Hungarian Natural History Museum (Dr. Tamás Szűts and Ágnes Garai). The first parts of the results arising from the elaboration of the Crete material are presented in this paper. The material examined is deposited at the Hungarian Natural History Museum, Budapest (HNHM), and some paratypes are preserved with the Muséum d’histoire naturelle de Genève (MHNG). The samples originate from four localities of which the list is given hereunder while in the list of species only the reference code numbers are indicated. At earlier published species only the authors and years of publication are mentioned. LIST OF LOCALITIES HNHM 08/21: Greece, Crete, Kato Karouzano. 23.VI.2008. Bush litter, clump of grass, roofs. Leg. S. Mahunka & J. Világi. Poecilochthonius spiciger (Berlese, 1910) Localities: HNHM-08/21, HNHM-08/24. COSMOCHTHONIIDAE Grandjean, 1947 Cosmochthonius reticulatus Grandjean, 1947 SPHAEROCHTHONIIDAE Grandejan, 1956 Sphaerochthonius splendidus (Berlese, 1904) Locality: HNHM 08/21. EPILOHMANNIIDAE Oudemans, 1923 Epilohmannia cylindrica cylindrica (Berlese, 1904) LOHMANNIIDAE Berlese, 1916 Papillacarus aciculatus (Berlese, 1905) PHTHIRACARIDAE Perty, 1841 Phthiracarus (Archiphthiracarus) tzanoudakisi Mahunka, 1979 STEGANACARIDAE Niedbala, 1986 Atropacarus platakisi (Mahunka, 1979) Notophthiracarus (Calyptophthiracarus) heterotrichus (Mahunka, 1979) Steganacarus (Steganacarus) flagellatissimus Mahunka, 1979 Steganacarus (Tropacarus) lasithiensis Mahunka, 1979 NOHRIDAE Berlese, 1896 HNHM 08/23: Greece, Crete, Ano Kera. 23.VI.2008. Dry moss and lichens from rocky wall. Leg. S. Mahunka & J. Világi. Nothrus anauniensis Canestrini et Fanzago, 1876 Locality: HNHM 08/23. HNHM 08/24: Greece, Crete, Leraptera. 25.VI. 2008. Dry litter with soil from bush. Leg. S. Mahunka & J. Világi. Hermanniella septentrionalis Berlese, 1910 Locality: HNHM 08/21. HNHM 08/31: Greece, Crete, Idaio, Cave Antro. 30.VII.2008. Soil and decaying debris from the cave. Leg. Á. Garai. Licnobelba caesarea (Berlese, 1910) LIST OF IDENTIFIED SPECIES BRACHYCHTHONIIDAE Thor, 1934 HERMANNIELLIDAE Grandjean, 1934 LICNOBELBIDAE Grandjean, 1965 ZETORCHESTIDAE Michael, 1898 Zetorchestes falzonii Coggi, 1898 Locality: HNHM 08/24. Zetorchestes flabrarius Grandjean, 1951 Locality: HNHM 08/23. XENILLIDAE Woolley et Higgins, 1966 Brachychthonius hauserorum Mahunka, 1979 (Mahunka, 1979) Eobrachychthonius similis Mahunka, 1979 Liochthonius horridus (Sellnick, 1928) Liochthonius strenzkei Forsslund, 1963 (Mahunka 1982) 44 Xenillus tegeocranus (Hermann, 1804) Locality: HNHM 08/21. TECTOCEPHEIDAE Grandjean, 1954 Tectoepheus sarekensis Träghårdh, 1910 Locality: HNHM 08/24. Mahunka: Dissorhina cretensis sp (...truncated)