The identity and type specimens of Collohmannia asiatica (Acari, Oribatida, Collohmanniidae)

Abstract

Three extant species of the oribatid mite genus Collohmannia (Collohmanniidae) have been named, of which two,C. gigantea Sellnick, 1922 and C. johnstoni Norton et Sidorchuk, 2014, are well known. The third – C. asiatica Krivolutsky et Christov, 1970 – is known only from a brief, insufficient original description. Our purpose was to study and illustrate the slidemounted and damaged type series of C. asiatica (male holotype, male and female paratypes) from Tajikistan and to redescribe the species using as much morphological information as could be extracted. Based on 18 characters that vary among the three species, C. asiatica is more closely related to the European C. gigantea than to the North American C. johnstoni. Similarities of the two palaearctic species that we consider synapomorphous include two that are common to both sexes – tarsus I thickened and bearing six solenidia – and two that are male-specific: relatively short legs IV, and elongated distal setae (τd) on the spermatopositor.