THE IDENTITY AND TYPE SPECIMENS OF COLLOHMANNIA ASIATICA (ACARI, ORIBATIDA, COLLOHMANNIIDAE)

Three extant species of the oribatid mite genus Collohmannia (Collohmanniidae) have been named, of which two,C. gigantea Sellnick, 1922 and C. johnstoni Norton et Sidorchuk, 2014, are well known. The third—C. asiatica Krivolutsky et Christov, 1970—is known only from a brief, insufficient original description. Our purpose was to study and illustrate the slidemounted and damaged type series of C. asiatica (male holotype, male and female paratypes) from Tajikistan and to redescribe the species using as much morphological information as could be extracted. Based on 18 characters that vary among the three species, C. asiatica is more closely related to the European C. gigantea than to the North American C. johnstoni. Similarities of the two palaearctic species that we consider synapomorphous include two that are common to both sexes—tarsus I thickened and bearing six solenidia—and two that are male-specific: relatively short legs IV, and elongated distal setae (τd) on the spermatopositor

ZETORCHELLA NORTONI, A NEW SPECIES OF ORIBATID MITE FROM ETHIOPIA (ACARI: ORIBATIDA: CALOPPIIDAE)

The oribatid mite genus Zetorchella (Acari: Oribatida: Caloppiidae) comprises 16 species. We describe Zetorchella nortoni sp. n., collected in mosses on trees from Ethiopia. The new species is most similar to Zetorchella orbiculata Wen, Zhao, 1994 (Asia, China), but differs from this species by the length of the body, the morphology of sensilli, the length of interlamellar setae, and the morphology of notogastral setae p2, and p3. Among African species the new species is most similar to Zetorchella basylewskyi (Balogh, 1958), but differs from this species by body size, the length of interlamellar setae and setae c, and the morphology of notogastral setae

ORIBATID MITES OF THE GENERA BASILOBELBA AND HETEROBELBA (ACARI: ORIBATIDA: AMEROIDEA) FROM BALE MOUNTAINS NATIONAL PARK (ETHIOPIA)

We describe Basilobelba gigantea sp. n. and redescribe Heterobelba spumosa, collected in soil of Bale Mountains National Park (African region, Ethiopia). Basilobelba gigantea sp. n. is most similar in morphology prodorsal and epimeral setae, number of notogaster setae, morphology of arched scalp-attachment structures, weakly neotrichy on ventral plate to the Ghanaian species Basilobelba africana, but differs from it by body size, length of interlamellar setae and number of neotrichous setae on the ventral plate. For the first time the data about morphology of gnathosoma, legs, and length of body setae are given for Heterobelba spumosa

The status of new fragment separator ACCULINNA-2 project and the first day experiments

The new facility fragment separator ACCULINNA-2 will be put into operation at the beginning of 2015 in FLNR JINR. The new separator is destined to add considerably to the studies of drip-line nuclei performed with the use of variety of direct reactions known to be distinctive to the 15 – 50 MeV/amu exotic secondary RIBs. Intense beams provided by the U-400M cyclotron will ensure the achievement of this objective. In addition to the RIB separation accomplished by means of the dipole-wedge-dipole selection, the addition of a zero-degree dipole magnet setup is foreseen. A long (13 m) straight section will provide precise time-of-flight measurements