<p class="Body"><strong>Morphological ontogeny<em> </em>of <em>Eremobelba geographica </em>(Acari: Oribatida: Eremobelbidae), with comments on <em>Eremobelba </em>Berlese</strong></p>

Abstract

The morphological ontogeny of Eremobelba geographica Berlese, 1908 is described and illustrated. This species was investigated mainly in ecological and biological aspects. It inhabits forest soils and cultivated areas, but is not abundant, and adults dominate in extracted samples. In the juveniles, the prodorsal seta in is short, and the bothridial seta is setiform. The nymphs are quadrideficient and eupheredermous, i.e. they carry exuvial scalps of the previous instars, using a cornicle. Paraproctal setae occur in all juvenile instars, which is rare in Brachypylina, and hypertrichy occurs in the aggenital region of the deutonymph, tritonymph and adult, and adanal region of the adult. In all instars, seta d on all genua and tibiae is present, except for tibia I of adult.