The genus Unionicola Haldeman in the family Unionicolidae is distributed worldwide, with more than half of the known species recorded as parasites of freshwater mussels (Mollusca: Bivalvia). A new subgenus, Chambardicola n. subgen., is described from freshwater mussels, Chambardia wissmanni (Martens 1883), collected in the Ubangi (Oubangui) River, Central African Republic (Congo basin), Africa. The new species is Unionicola (Chambardicola) banguiensis n. sp., a unique mite with distinctive coxal plate anatomy and male genital field. This new mite extends our understanding of the morphology and biogeography of the genus in Africa. It further extends our knowledge of host selection and host-specificity among African Unionicola.
The genus Unionicola Haldeman, 1842 contains 56 subgenera (Smit, 2008). The subgenus Polyatacides Lundblad, 1941a was originally created as a genus. Cook (1974) reduced the taxon to subgenus. Vidrine (1986a) eliminated the subgenus, and placed its only species, U. prominens Koenike, 1914, into the subgenus A tacella Lundblad, 1937. Vidrine (1996 resurrected the subgenus Polyatacides in the genus Unionicola. This paper supports that change and re-evaluates Polyatacides, Atacella, and Berezatax Vidrine 1986b: the three subgenera have dorsoventrally flattened pedipalps and form a distinctive Artenkreis of gill mites in the Americas.
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