Kongsbergia (s. str.) pectinigera Motaş & Tanasachi, 1946 Fig. 20 Material examined. Germany: D 487 (1/0/0); Italy: Sicily, I 1138 Int (1/0/0); Romania (?), uncertain collecting sites, material in coll. Schwoerbel (SMF): " RU 0" (1/0/0), " RU 14" (4/0/0); Switzerland: NHMB 4661-4662 " Kongsbergia alata, Lützel Grundw. coll. Schiess " det. Bader, 3 ♂♂. First record from Italy. Remarks. Male K. pectinigera differ from K. pectinata (in parentheses) mostly in the formation of the dorsal shield, with an inversely U-shaped suture line located in the anterior third (in the centre) embracing a pair of long, strong, proximally inflated setae (all dorsal setae simple); furthermore, the distoventral seta of IV-L-5 is pointed (blunt). Measurements of four males (D 487, I 1138 I, RU 14): Idiosoma L/W 400–440/220–250, ratio 1.8–1.9, dL 350–370; IV-L (L/H, L/H ratio): IV-L-4, 88–100/40–53, 1.9–2.4; IV-L-5, 68–90/45–55, 1.5–1.8; IV-L-6, 108–113/ 30–36, 3.1–3.6. L ratio IV-L-4/5, 1.9–2.4; IV-L-4/6, 0.8–0.9; IV-L-5/6, 0.6–0.8. Palp measurements (L/H, L/H ratio, relative L % total L): P-1, 25–28/23–25, 1.0–1.1, 8–9; P-2, 78–90/60–68, 1.3–1.4, 27–29; P-3, 33–38/30–36, 1.0–1.2, 11–12; P-4, 118–123/21–26, 4.7–5.5, 40–41; P-5, 33–35/11–13, 2.7–3.1, 11–12. L ratio P-2/P-3, 2.4; P-2/ P-4, 0.7; P-3/P-4, 0.3; P4/P-2+3, 1.0–1.1. For differences in the female sex, see the following paragraph. Following the original description of K. alata Szalay, 1954, this species differs from K. pectinigera in a smooth, not pectinate proximoventral seta on IV-L-5. The proposal of Angelier (1950) to consider K. pectinigera a junior synonym of K. alata shows that he did not consider this character state, and his record from the Pyrenees is questionable; the same is true for a record from Poland (Biesiadka 1975). As also two males from Switzerland deposited under the name of K. alata in NHMB (4661–4662), but never published, represent K. pectinigera, K. alata is here considered a species requiring redescription (type material lost, many diagnostic details not described), recorded with certainty only from the Hungarian type localities in the areas of Bihar and Kolozs.

Published as part of Gerecke, Reinhard, 2014, Studies on European species of the water mite family Aturidae Thor (Acari: Hydrachnidia), pp. 1-46 in Zootaxa 3841 (1) on page 26, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.3841.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/286746