Chelonuropoda brasiliana Kontschán & Starý 2012, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Kontschán, Jenő
name: Starý, Josef
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2012
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Arachnida
Mesostigmata
Trachyuropodidae
Chelonuropoda
Chelonuropoda brasiliana

description: Chelonuropoda brasiliana sp. nov.   
(Figure 5)  
 Material examined   
 Holotype. Female. Brazil, Pantanal, Chapada Dos Guimaraes, 09 December 1990, closed forest, from leaf litter and soil, leg. J. Balogh.   
 Paratypes. Three males. Locality and date same as holotype.   
Holotype is deposited in HNHM, one of the paratypes in NHMG, other paratypes in HNHM.  
 Description   
 Female. Length of idiosoma 1050 µm, width 750 µm (n = 1). Shape of idiosoma suboval, posterior margin rounded.   
 Dorsal side (Figure 5A). Dorsal and marginal shields fused close to the anterior margin. Marginal shield anteriorly wide, bearing short, smooth and needle-like setae (c.20–30 µm). All dorsal setae smooth and needle-like (c.65–80 µm), J1 c.120–125 µm. All setae on dorsal shield placed in small, rounded depressions (Figure 5B). Two strongly sclerotized C-shaped rings present on posterolateral areas of dorsal shield, a shallow channel situated between these two rings.   
 Ventral side (Figure 5C). Sternal and ventral shields without ornamentation, all sternal setae smooth and needle-like (c.23–35 µm). Ventral setae smooth, needle-like (45–60 µm) and placed in small, rounded depressions. Metapodal regions with one pair of deep, transversal, funnel-like furrows bordered with two rows of phylliform setae (c.72–78 µm), these two funnels are connected by a shallow, weakly sclerotized channel. Adanal setae ad1 c.55–60 µm, ad2 c.30–32 µm, postanal seta similar in shape and length to ad1. Stigmata situated between coxae II and III. Peritremes Ω- shaped. Genital shield wide, linguliform, without sculptural pattern and anterior process. Tritosternum with quadrangular basis, laciniae with three branches.   
Legs. All segments with simple and smooth setae and a pair of claws at tip of the ambulacral prolongation.  
Gnathosoma. Corniculi horn-like, laciniae with several smooth long branches. Hypostomal setae h1 and h3 smooth, h2 and h4 apically serrate, their length not measurable exactly, because insertions were covered by coxae I. Palp trochanter with one short smooth seta and one long, marginally serrate seta. Epistome triangular and apically pilose.  
 Male. Length of idiosoma 940–960 µm, width 630–640 µm (n = 3). Shape oval, posterior margin rounded.   
Dorsal side. Ornamentation and chaetotaxy as for female.  
 Ventral side. Ornamentation and chaetotaxy of ventral shield as for female. Sternal shield without sculptural pattern, the positions of sternal setae are shown in Figure 5E. All sternal setae smooth and needle-like (c.34–40 µm). Genital shield rounded and placed between coxae III.   
Nymphs and larva are unknown.  
 Etymology   
The name of the new species refers the country where the specimens were collected.  
  Key to the females of Chelonuropoda species    
[Based on illustration of Sellnick (1954), Hirschmann and Zirngiebl-Nicol (1973a, b), Hirschmann (1991), Kontschán (2006, 2009a).]  
1. Genital shield ornamented on surface.................................... 2 Surface of genital shield smooth......................................... 7  
2. Peritreme hairpin shaped, with one bend and almost straight parallel sections in medial part (Figure 6A–D)............................................3 Peritreme P-shaped, R-shaped or mushroom-shaped, medial part never with only one bend and simple straight section (Figure 6E–H)................. 5  
 3. A channel with strongly sclerotized margins present between the two metapodal furrows........................................... C. canalitica Channel with strongly sclerotized margins absent......................... 4   
 4. Margin of sternal shield covered by small, oval pits............... C. nicolae Sternal shield smooth......................................... C. bispirata   
 5. Peritreme mushroom-shaped (Figure 6H)....................... C. athiasae Peritreme P-shaped or R-shaped (Figure 6F,G)........................... 6   
 6. Peritreme P-shaped (Figure 6G), sternum with six pairs of setae, basis of tritosternum narrow, shallow channel present between the two C-shaped rings on dorsal shield............................................... C. africana Peritreme R-shaped (Figure 6F), sternum with 11 pairs of setae, basis of tritosternum wide, ditch absent between the two C-shaped rings on dorsal shield........................................................... C. banari   
 7. Peritreme Ω- shaped (Figure 6J)............................... C. brasiliana Peritreme hairpin-shaped (Figure 6C)...................... C. cheloniforma   
 Notes to the key. Chelonuropoda similibispirata is not presented in the key because it is known only from male specimens. This species has mushroom-shaped peritremes (Figure 6I), similar to C. athiasae (Figure 6H), but peritreme of C. similibispirata has an accessory loop between the stigmata and mushroom-shaped medial section (Figure 6I).   
 Zoogeographical notes   
 Up to now, only nine Chelonuropoda species are described from the two, large tropical regions of the world. Four species are recorded from the Neotropical region, Brazil and Bolivia; the other five species are described from the Ethiopian region, namely Chad, Angola, Ivory Coast, Kenya and Madagascar (Figure 7). This distribution type, which is called Amphiatlantic, is not an unknown phenomenon among the mesostigmatid mites. Some years ago, Karg and Schorlemmer (2009) presented similar occurrences in the genera Africoseius Krantz, 1962 and Rykellus Lee, 1970 and the study of the genus Afrotrachytes Kontschán 2006 showed similar results (Kontschán 2009b).   
 Regarding the Afrotropical and Neotropical occurrences of the genus Chelonuropoda, this genus must have developed during a geological period when the African and the South America land masses were connected, before the breaking up of Gondwanaland. This connection continued until the Upper Cretaceous; hence we suppose this genus originated during this geological period.
description: Published as part of Kontschán, Jenő & Starý, Josef, 2012, Notes on the genus Chelonuropoda Sellnick, 1954 with description of three new species (Acari: Uropodina: Oplitidae), pp. 741-756 in Journal of Natural History 46 (11 - 12) on pages 749-755, DOI: 10.1080/00222933.2011.651650, http://zenodo.org/record/5199641