Matskási István (szerk.): A Magyar Természettudományi Múzeum évkönyve 92. (Budapest 2000)

Mahunka, S.: Some oribatid mites from Yemen (Acari: Oribatida) (Acarologica Genavensia LXXXVIII)

ANNALES HISTORICO-NATURALES MUSEI NATIONALIS HUNGARICI Volume 92 Budapest, 2000 pp. 325-346. Some oribatid mites from Yemen (Acari: Oribatida) (Acarologica Genavensia LXXXVIII) S. MAHUNKA Department of Zoology, Hungarian Natural History Museum H-1088 Budapest, Baross utca 13 e-mail: mahunka®zoo.zoo.nhmus

diu MAHUNKA, S. (2000): Some oribatid mites from Yemen (Acari: Oribatida).(Acarologica Genavensia LXXXVIII). - Annls hist.-nat. Mus. natn. hung. 92: 325-346. Abstract-Twenty-three species are listed from Yemen, eight of them are new to science. One represents also a new genus: Yemenobodes gen. n. (Carabodidae). Pilogalumna arabica BAYOUMI et AL-KHALIFA, 1986 is partly redescribed and figured. The position of Multioppia trembleyi MAHUNKA 1977 is discussed, Multioppia calcarata MAHUNKA, 1992 = Multioppia trembleyi MAHUNKA, 1977 (syn. n.). With 35 figures. INTRODUCTION The fauna of the Arabian Peninsula is especially interesting from a zoogeographical point of view, since the general opinion is that the limit line between the Palaearctic and the Ethiopian Regions is more or less in the middle of this peninsula. This was the reason why I was happy to undertake the examination of a series of samples collected by Mr. A. VAN HARTEN in Yemen. The fauna of the southern half of the peninsula is poorly known, and even the available data are rather unreliable. As far as I am aware only two species have been known from Yemen and even these are figured among Oribatids from Saudi Arabia published by BAYOUMI & AL-KHALIFA ( 1985). I had a total of fifteen samples with only a relatively small number of specimens. So far 23 species have been ascertained. One of them represents a new genus (Yemenobodes gen. n.) belonging to the family of Carabodidae. The specimens belonging to the genus Zygoribatula BÉRLÉSE, 1916 were dominant in this material. They are belonging to four species. In spite of the fact that a lot of species of this genus were heretofore known from comparatively nearby regions [e.g. GROEBLER (1993, 1994) and GROEBLER & KOK (1993) published some Zygoribatula species from South Africa] and some species are known to have large distribution areas, none of them was identical with