Description of a new species, Prozercon mahunkaiana n. sp., and redescription of Prozercon aristatus Athias-Henriot, 1961 from Portugal

A BSTRACT — While elaborating the unsorted Berlese samples collected in Portugal at the Hungarian Natural History Museum , two Prozercon Sellnick, 1943 species were found. One of them, Prozercon mahunkaiana n. sp. , is new to science. The other species, Prozercon aristatus Athias-Henriot, 1961 is redescribed, and a description of the unknown male species is provided.


INTRODUCTION
Zerconidae belongs to one of the most important and abundant soil inhabiting mesostigmatid mite groups on the Northern Hemisphere. First records of zerconid mite species from the Iberian Peninsula were presented by Sellnick (1958), later Mihelčič (1960Mihelčič ( , 1962Mihelčič ( , 1963aMihelčič ( , 1963b and Athias-Henriot (1961) described several species from the region. In the past twenty years, due to the prominent work of Moraza (1989Moraza ( , 1990Moraza ( , 1991Moraza ( , 2006aMoraza ( , 2006b our knowledge on the Zerconidae fauna of Spain has been greatly improved. According to the key of Moraza (2006b), currently 29 species are known from Spain (including the Balearic and Canary Islands), of which nine belong to the genus Prozercon Sellnick, 1943, however the presence of P. aristatus Athias-Henriot, 1961 is ignored.
The present paper provides new records and a detailed re-description of the latter species and also the description of a new species for Science.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Specimens of the Collection of Soil Zoology of the Hungarian Natural History Museum (HNHM) were extracted using Berlese-funnels, then cleared with lactic acid and mounted in glycerine. Preparations were examined using a light microscope, drawings were made with the aid of a drawing tube. Specimens are deposited in the Collection of Soil Zoology of HNHM, Budapest. The terminology of setae follows Lindquist and Evans (1965), with modifications for the caudal region as given by Lindquist and Moraza (1998). The system of notation for dermal glands and lyrifissures is based on both Johnston and Moraza (1991) and Athias-Henriot (1969). All measurements including scale bars of the figures are given in micrometers. Ujvári Z.
Ventral side ( Figure 1B) -Slit between peritrematal shields and dorsal shields inconspicuous. Peritrematal shields with posterolateral tips reaching level of R3, covered by fine reticulation. Peritremes straight, without remarkable dilatation near the stigmata. Chaetotaxy and poroidotaxy of ventral shields typical for genus Prozercon. Sternal shield 47 µm long and 34 µm wide at the level of setae st2, with arcuate posterior margin and reticulate ornamentation. A weakly sclerotised slit between level of setae st1 and st2 can often be observed. Ventrianal shield with short, smooth and needle-like preanal and adanal setae, setae Zv1 absent. Postanal seta two times longer than preanal and adanal setae, setae Jv5 plumose. Anal valves with vestigial euanal setae. Glands gv3 situated anterolateral to adanal setae. Anterior surface of ventrianal shield covered by squamous pattern to level of Jv3-Zv4-Jv4.
Description of male (n = 1) ( Figures 3A, B) -Length of idiosoma: 269 µm; width: 204 µm. Chaetotaxy, poroidotaxy and sculptural pattern of dorsal, ventrianal and peritrematal shields similar to those of female, except setae j2, s1, which smooth, and Z4 which similar in appearance to Z3 in male. Length of opisthonotal setae and distances between their insertions as in the Table 1. Sternigenital shield entire in the single specimen, bearing four pairs of setae, setae st5 absent. Posterolateral tips of peritrematal shields fused to ventrianal shield at level of setae R3. Each characters of gnathosoma similar to that of female, but terminal part of fixed digit of chelicerae bifurcate.
Differential diagnosis -Based on the latest key to the genus Prozercon (Ujvári 2011a), P. mahunkaiana n. sp. belongs to the group of species possessing 7 pairs of R-setae, smooth S1, uniform, short, pointed and smooth or very finely pilose J1, Z1 and S2. Following the key, the species possesses elongate S3 setae, and by the small setal bases it is most similar to P. aristatus Athias-Henriot, 1961, P. katae Cǎlugǎr, 2010 andP. neorafalskii Balan andSergienko, 1991. Differntial characters of the four species are listed in the Table 2.
Description of male (n = 5) ( Figures 7A, B) -Length of idiosoma: 306 -311 µm (309 µm); width: 241 -252 µm (247 µm). Chaetotaxy, poroidotaxy and sculptural pattern of dorsal, ventrianal and peritrematal shields similar to those of female, except setae Z4 which similar in appearance to Z3 in male. Length of opisthonotal setae and distances between their insertions as in the Table 3. Sternigenital shield entire, bearing four pairs of setae, setae st5 absent. Posterolateral tips of peritrematal shields fused to ventrianal shield at level of setae R4. Each characters of gnathosoma similar to that of female, but terminal part of fixed digit of chelicerae bifurcate.

Distribution -Southern Galicia, Gerês Mts. (Spain and Portugal).
Remarks -The species is illustrated erroneously in Petrova (1977) as setae J5 are lacking from the figure.