Carolinea 77

L amos : Discovery of Belba sculpta M ihel č i č , 1957 167 1962, B . prasadi B ayartogtokh , 2000, B . sasa­ kawai E nami , 1989, and B . sculpta resemble the Belba species discovered in the Dossenwald in possessing: 1) slender, relatively long, smooth notogastral setae of the c-, l- and h- series; 2) long flagellate pseudanal seta ps1; 3) smooth, flagellate, elongate to very elongate sensillus and interlamellar seta; 4) clavate legs with smooth, flagellate, elongate to very elongate setae d and l’ on genu IV. Belba sasakawai , which shares with the Dossen- wald Belba specimens the possession of well- defined tubercles Ba, Bp, Va, Vp, is distinguisha- ble from the latter by the extremely long setae ps1 (148-190 µm), notogastral setae of c-, l-, and h-series with a distinct middle vein and bilate- ral vanes, and a smaller body size with a mean length of merely 395 µm in Japan ( E nami 1989) and 450 µm in China ( W ang & N orton 1995). This species is known only from Japan ( E nami 1989) and the southern provinces of China ( W ang & N orton 1995). Belba dubinini as described by B ulanova - Z ach ­ vatkina (1962, 1967, 1975) differs from the Dos- senwald Belba in the following characteristics: being considerably larger with a body length of 680-760 µm; lacking the postbothridial tuber- cles Bp; having the mutual distance between the insertion points of lamellar setae le exceed that of the rostral setae ro; parastigmatic tuber- cle Sa short, triangular in dorsal view with a la- teral extension not considerably exceeding that of tubercle Sp; seta l’ on femur II setiform and normally developed, instead of short, thick, cera- tiform; possessing only 3 setae on femur IV; leg IV measuring 2x the body length. The type loca- lity of Belba dubinini is the Crimean ( B ulanova - Z achvatkina 1962) but there are also collection records from Georgia ( M urvanidze et al. 2018), Poland ( Z alewska 1983), the Ukraine ( Y aroshen ­ ko 2009, E rmilov et al. 2012) and the Russian Far East ( K rivolutsky 1995). The species needs to be redescribed. Using the account in B ayartogtokh (2000), Belba prasadi from Mongolia can be distinguished from the Dossenwald Belba as follows: postbothridial tubercles Bp absent, shorter posterior notogas- tral seta ps1, interlamellar setae and sensillus both much shorter, seta l’ of femur II elongate and slender, smaller size with a ventral body length of 406-441 µm. The Belba specimens from Mannheim show a very close overall resemblance in their morpho- logical features to Belba sculpta from Spain.With a maximum body length of 526-598 µm and a width of 315-368 µm they are slightly smaller than individuals from Madrid for which P érez -Í ñi ­ go (1970) indicates a length of 580-640 µm and a width of 370-420 µm. K ahwash et al. (1992) give a length of 525-575 µm and a width of 312-375 µm for Belba sculpta specimens collected in various locations in Andalusia, which agree excellently with the dimensions of the material from the Dos- senwald. The above authors do not specify the criteria used in their body length measurements, but it is most likely that they refer to the total body length. P érez -Í ñigo (1970, 1997) mentions that Belba sculpta possesses a little projecting and rounded propodolateral apophysis. The illustrations he provides ( P érez -Í ñigo 1970, p. 275, figs 32, 33; 1997, p. 134; fig. 46), as well as the earlier con- tribution by M ihel č i č (1957) demonstrate, howe- ver, that an apophysis P is absent in this species, agreeing with the results of the present study. The Dossenwald Belba differ from the Spanish specimens of Belba sculpta , based on the de- scription of the latter by P érez -Í ñigo (1970, 1997) in possessing: I) a short, thick, thorn-like seta l’ paraxially on femur II instead of seta l’ setiform, thin and of normal appearance; II) barbed geni- tal, anal and epimeral setae instead of these all being smooth; III) epimeral setation formula 3-1- 3-4 instead of 3-1-4-4; IV) tarsal setation 20-17- 17-13 instead of 21-18-18-15. The barbs on the epimeral setae of the Dossen- wald specimens are not easily seen. It is likely that they were overlooked or deemed to be of no significance by P érez -Í ñigo (1970, 1997) in the Belba sculpta from Spain. A degree of intraspeci- fic variability in the number of setae of epimere III is relatively common in oribatids. The tarsal setal formula of 21-18-18-15 has up to now not reli- ably been noted to occur in any species of Bel­ ba and is instead characteristic of taxa such as Damaeus K och , 1835, and Tectodamaeus A oki , 1984 ( L amos 2016). Since tarsal setal counts in damaeid mites are often not easy to determine correctly under a light microscope, especially in slide mounted holotype specimens, it is proba- ble that the tarsal setation formula presented by P érez -Í ñigo (1970, 1997) for Belba sculpta is the result of a slight inaccuracy in counting. The spinelike seta on femur II in the Dossenwald specimens is possibly a significant distinction between the specimens from Mannheim and the Spanish Belba sculpta , since this highly unusu- al trait has up to now only been found in some