Genera of Gymnodamaeidae (Acari: Oribatida: Plateremaeoidea) of Canada, with notes on some nomenclatorial problems
Author
Walter, David Evans
text
Zootaxa
2009
2206
23
44
journal article
10.5281/zenodo.189740
8dc3930d-f5da-496f-a86f-f0da1543811a
1175-5326
189740
Donjohnstonella subalpina
(Paschoal, 1982)
(Figs. 15–16)
Material examined:
USA
, WASHINGTON:
Holotype
(see Comments) female ex subalpine fir litter, Mt Rainier, WA,
6.vii.1973
, NGN1, 0 0 7806,
OSAL
0 0 81533.
Comments
: In
Paschoal & Johnston (1982)
, Paschoal named “
Johnstonella subalpina
Paschoal
n. gen.
, s. [
sic
] sp.” (p. 450), along with diagnostic characters; thus establishing this genus and species. The name
Johnstonella
, however, is pre-occupied by the tomopterid polychaete genus
Johnstonella
Gosse, 1853
(often now treated as a subgenus of
Tomopteris
Eschscholtz
). In order to retain the meaning of the original author, i.e. to name the genus in honor of Donald E. Johnston, I propose the replacement name
Donjohnstonella
. As noted above, since the tritonymph of
Gymnodamaeus meyeri
Bayartogtokh & Schatz
expresses both seta
h
3 and
lp
, the identity of the extra notogastral seta in
D. subalpina
is unclear, but I am using
h
3.
Paschoal (1983d)
reported the
holotype
to be a male, but the labelled
holotype
specimen from OSAL examined is a dorsally mounted female with a distinct ovipositor. Presumably this is typographical error, since the only
paratype
female reported is in the author’s collection in
Brazil
. This specimen appears to be infected with a parasitic microorganism, oval to circular (5–9 long) with hyaline halo (~1 thick) and darker, granulate core. Three gut boli composed of dark fungal mycelium are present.
Donjohnstonella subalpina
is known from three mites collected from subalpine fir litter on Mt Rainier in Washington,
USA
(
Paschoal 1983d
) and is not yet known to occur in
Canada
.
Subías (2004)
considers
D. subalpina
to be a species of
Gymnodamaeus
, but it can be separated from that genus by the presence of seta
h
3 on the notogaster (as in some
Plateremaeidae
), 3 setae on femur IV (
2 in
Gymnodamaeus
s.s.
), the lack of a ridge connecting the apophysis bearing the interlamellar seta to the bothridium, the tooth on the posterior rim of the bothridium (Fig. 15), the bullet-shaped cerotegument (Fig. 16 vs
Fig. 3
), and the lack of a nipple-like tubercle between setae
h
1.