Reinstatement of Metatarsonemus Attiah (Acari: Tarsonemidae), with description of a new species, redefinition of the genus and a key to the world species
Author
Lofego, Antonio Carlos
Author
Cavalcante, Ana Cristina Cerqueira
Author
Demite, Peterson Rodrigo
Author
Rezende, José Marcos
Author
Ochoa, Ronald
Author
Moraes, Gilberto José De
text
Zootaxa
2019
2019-12-16
4711
2
307
329
journal article
24605
10.11646/zootaxa.4711.2.5
2f813356-cd98-4a77-b4dc-78a4b15bde56
1175-5326
3577031
0850D3FF-D053-49E0-B67C-A33DE117D1CB
Tarsonemus longitibialis
(Attiah)
Metatarsonemus longitibialis
Attiah, 1970: 190
.
Tarsonemus longitibialis
,
Lindquist, 1985:1285
;
Lin and Zhang, 2002: 246
.
Remarks
: Examining the specimens available to Attiah, in the same slide preparation of the
holotype
male,
Lindquist (1985)
detected two adult females that apparently belonged to this species and that were in poor condition. He distinguished them from females of
M. simplicissimus
by three characteristics, one of which was the absence of fissures in coxisternal plates I to IV. This character state leads us to exclude
T. longitibialis
from
Metatarsonemus
, as re-defined here. An examination of the females is necessary before a conclusion about which genus
T. longitibialis
belongs, but is provisionally retained in
Tarsonemus
. We tried to analyze these females by examining the same slide studied by
Lindquist (1985)
which supposedly would contain the females (in poor conditions according to Lindquist) and males of
T. longitibialis
. But only males were found. Though we carefully looked for them, no females were evident. Possibly they were crystallized by the medium or lost during some remounting procedure. Therefore, a definitive conclusion in this regard requires an examination of additional specimens collected from the type locality.