S. Mahunka szerk.: Folia Entomologica Hungarica 46/1. (Budapest, 1985)

FOLIA ENTOMOLOGICA HUNGARICA ROVARTANI KÖZLEMÉNYEK XLVI. 1 1985 p. 115-128 The variability of some morphological features in Oribatid mites By S. MAHUNKA and L. ZOMBORI (Received January 8, 1985) Abstract: A unified nomenclature is proposed for the shape and surface of the setiform organs, the shape of apices and endings, and body surface sculpturing used in the description of Oribatid mites. The external morphological characteristics of Oribatid mites are highly variable.The several body parts can easily be distinguished from one another and each and every one has its own special name that has been designed to convey an unambiguous meaning. However, some of these parts should further be differentiated since they are diverse and each appears in greatly specialized forms. Attempts had been made by several authors engaged in the study of mites (e.g. GRANDJEAN 1952, 1969, TARMAN 1958, BALOGH 1972, 1983, BALOGH and MAHUNKA 1983, NORTON 1977) to create a uniform nomenclature applicable to the many forms of these structural parts. One of the most comprehensive works in this field was compiled by HAMMEN (1980). Although the whole book is devoted to the elucidation of many hundreds of technical terms, and it is a real storehouse of information on the morphology of mites, unfortunately, it has several drawbacks. To mention but one example, there is no detailed treatment of the superficial sculpturing, a, feature of paramount importance in descriptions, instead a list of names is given under the heading micro7 sculpture, but what these names mean, how these features look like, no indication is given, since there are no appropriate, elucidating illustrations. Each body part can be described in several ways, as, for example, according to shape, surface, function, origin. Our present contribution is restricted merely to the first two categories. The present attempt is to summarize and show in a selection of line drawings the most characteristic forms of the following body parts: setlform organs, apices and endings of some outgrowths, and the body surface sculpturing. The names derive from the not too numerous morphological handbooks on mites and, of course, from the great number of technical papers that accumulated over the decades of mite taxonomical research. When a particular formation could not be described by any of the currently used term applied to mites, then we turned to other than acarological sources (TORRE-BUENO 1937, JAEGER 1950, HUTCHINSON and DALZIEL 1954, E

ADY 1968, HARRIS 1979). Since in entomological literature there exist some highly useful handbooks which include many morphological terms (e.g. IMMS 1956, KÉLER 1955), or are wholly devoted to insect morphology (STEINMANN and ZOMBORI 1981a, 1981b, 1984), we adapted several names also from these sources. Since a wide selection of terms is in current use in the technical literature, we refrain from treating each and every one, all the more so as in many cases synonymous names are encountered