Abstract
The new species Rhagovelia sumbana is described from the island of Sumba in the Lesser Sunda Islands. The species possesses character states that place it in the R. sarawakensis group, whose members are otherwise known only from the Sundaland continental platform. The presence of this species on Sumba provides additional supporting evidence for the prevailing tectonic hypothesis that Sumba is a displaced continental fragment rifted from an original position on the southeast margin of Sundaland near Borneo, and the geological evidence for this is briefly reviewed. Photomicrographs of key morphological characters for R. sumbana, a map of its known distribution on Sumba, and a photograph of the type-locality habitat are provided.
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