Open Access

Mosadoluwa Adetola Badejo, Steffen Woas, Ludwig Beck

• In this paper, we describe a new species of Mesoplophora collected from forest floor litter in southwestern Nigeria. Meso­plophora is a cosmopolitan genus of pytchoid mites that has been recorded from the Palaearctic region as well as Morocco and Tchad in the Ethiopian region. M. ife an a is the first Meso­plophora species to be fully identified and described from Nigeria. Differences between this species, M. ifeana, and other Meso­plophora species recorded from Africa are observed in respect of the number of spines on the sensillus, presence of two pairs of exobothridial setae and leg chaetotaxy. The lack of information on fine taxonomic details of adults and deutonymphs of M. africana from Tchad as well as the discrepancies in the description of certain morphological features such as organisation and chaetotaxy of the ventral plates as well as the nomenclature of setae on the aspis were noted. Attention was drawn to the unique combination of traits of both lower and higher Oribatida in Mesoplophora, a trait which may be responsible for its ubiquitous distribution.