Additions to the oribatid mite fauna of the Caribbean, with a description of a new species of Epidamaeus (Acari, Oribatida, Damaeidae)

Abstract

A list of identified oribatid mite taxa (Acari, Oribatida) from the Caribbean (mostly Lesser Antilles) partly based on a collection of the Naturalis Biodiversity Center (Leiden, The Netherlands), including 84 species from 64 genera and 35 families, is presented; of these, Grandjeania bicaudata, Scheloribates (Scheloribates) milleri, Protoribates oblongus, and Orthogalumna saeva are recorded in the Neotropical region for the first time. A new species of Epidamaeus from the Bahamas is described; E. bahamensis n. sp. differs from E. flagelloides Norton, 1979 by the morphology of notogastral setae, prodorsal tubercles Dp and parastigmatic tubercles Sa, and the absence of prodorsal tubercles Bp. Moreover, a new combination, Dyobelba palaciosi (Iglesias and Guzmán, 2012) n. comb., is proposed.