Mniobia barbatula Donner, 1950

3. Mniobia barbatula Donner, 1950 View in CoL

ỹ÷åṞffiḆệ ( ṵÿ) Mniobia barbatula Donner, 1950, p. 334 , figs. 22a- f;

Melone et al., 1998, p. 1758, fig. 8.

Material examined. Four specimens found from mosses and tree barks at Daegwallyeong Guksaseonghwangdang (near parking area), Hoenggye-ri, Daegwallyeong-myeon, Pyeongchang-gun, Gangwon-do, 37°41 ʹ 46.9 ʺ N, 128°45 ʹ 13.5 ʺ E, on 11 May, 2024.

Diagnosis. Rostral lamella slightly wider than rostrum width and bilobed; each lobe bilobed and inner lobe much smaller than outer lobe. Corona slightly wider than cingulum; corona as wide as cingulum pad. Upper lip arched and with a narrow and high median lobe; median lobe bilobed and with a smaller and lower lobe between them. Sulcus very narrow; much narrower than 1/2 of pedicel width. Lateral margins of cingulum pad round medially. Teeth 3/3. Trunk finely granulated. Foot very short and about 1/9 of total length in creeping. Spurs long, conical and with narrow interspace.

Measurements. Total length in creeping 209-237 μm. Rostrum width 15-16 μm. Rostral lamella width 17-18 μm. Corona width 29-33 μm. Cingulum width 28-29 μm. Cingulum pad width 31-32 μm. Greatest neck width in creeping 35-38 μm. Greatest trunk width in creeping 35-56 μm. Greatest trunk width in feeding 66 μm. Trophi length 17-19 μm. Antenna length 9-10 μm. Spur length 5-6 μm.

Remarks. Mniobia barbatula can be distinguished from the other Mniobia species by the tetralobed anterior margin of rostral lamella and the trilobed median lobe of upper lip. The characteristics of the Korean specimens agreed quite well with the original description.

This species is rather rare and has been reported from only two countries after the description from Austria by Donner (1950). In their comparative study on the trophi of bdelloids, Melone et al. (1998) reported this species from Italy in the species list with a scanning electron microscopy photograph of trophi. Devetter et al. (2020) reported it from Czech Republic in the species list without remarks or figures. New to Asia.

Partial CO1 was amplified using DNA extracted from one specimen of Mniobia barbatula . One sequence (614 bp in length) was obtained and submitted to GenBank un- der accession number PQ498739.

World distribution. Austria, Czech Republic, Italy and Korea.

Deposition. Deposited in the collection of the National Institute of Biological Resources, Incheon, Korea ( OBMV IV0000000213 ) .