Atelopsalis mediterranea Durucan, 2024, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Durucan, Furkan
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2024
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Arachnida
Trombidiformes
Halacaridae
Atelopsalis
Atelopsalis mediterranea

description: Atelopsalis mediterranea sp. nov.
Atelopsalis pacifica — Durucan and Boyaci, 2017
Zoobank number: urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act: A5836E7A-C4C7-42A3-99A1-C9FB31C40784
Figures 4 and 5 & Table 1
Material examined. All individuals obtained at St. 1 (Kaş, Antalya), well sorted soft sand, 30 m depth, 36.157583, 29.630333, Oct. 2015, undissected and mounted into one slide: Holotype: Female (FDHAL-24/87); Paratypes: Male (FDHAL-24/88); Male (FDHAL-24/89); Male (FDHAL-24/90); Male and deutonymph (FDHAL-24/91).
Etymology. The species is named for its presence in the Mediterranean Sea.
Description. Measurements presented in Table 1.
Female (holotype). Dorsal and ventral plates large (Figs. 4A, B, D). AD have “U” shaped raised areolae (one anterior and two posterior) with large alveolus which are modified rosetta pores surrounded by canaliculi. Posterior two areolae one-two pore wide. Middle of AD with reticulate and each mesh subdivided. Pair of ds-1 posterior to glp-1. Ds-2 on the anterior part of OC, at 0.17 of OC total length and situated between two corneae. Posterior margin of AD and anterior margin of PD truncate. OC with two large corneae (Fig. 4C), large areolae and gland pores. OC posteriorly extending beyond the insertion of leg III. Ds-3 on the cuticular membranous between AD and PD. PD with two costae and one alveolus pore wide, middle of PD with reticulate and each mesh subdivided. Ds-4 at 0.22 and ds-5 at 0.58 of PD total length. Adanal setae on anal cone. All ventral plates separate (Figs. 4B, D). Anterior epimeral plate with three pairs of setae, one pair on the second coxal long (40). There are two porose areolae with rosetta pores and a few single pore near epimeral vesicles (22). Posterior epimeral plates with one dorsal and three ventral setae and three porose areolae with rosetta pores. GA has three pairs of pgs and one pair of anterior sgs. GA anteriorly truncated. Distance between GO and GA is 63.
Gnathosoma short, as long as 0.34 times of the gnathosoma length (Figs. 4E, F). Rostrum triangular. Ventral gnathosomal base with a pair of porose areolae which have 8–10 large alveolous with modified rosetta pores surrounded by canaliculi. Basal pair of maxillary setae long, apical pair of setae short. Palps slender, three segmented. P1 4, P2 11, P3 5. P1 and P2 without setae. P3 with 1 basal seta, 1 apical setula and 2 apical spurs.
Leg I (Fig. 4G) longer and wider than the following legs. Leg chaetotaxy (Figs. 4G–I, J) from trochanter to tarsus (solenidion and parambulacral setae excluded): leg I: 1, 2, 5, 4, 8, 6; leg II: 1, 2, 5, 4, 7, 4; leg III: 1, 2, 3, 3, 5, 4; leg IV: 0, 2, 3, 3, 5, 3. Telofemur I (Fig. 5B) wide, with one spiniform lamella (see arrowhead) but no spines. Telofemur I and tibia I are almost equal in length. Tibiae I to IV with 0, 2, 1, 1 bipectinate setae. Tibia I with two spines (Fig. 5C). Tibia II (Fig. 5D) with posterior medial spine (see arrowhead). Tarsus I (Fig. 4K) with 3 dorsal setae, dorsolateral solenidion (6 long) and famulus, 3 ventral setae and pair of parambulacral setae. Tarsus II (Fig. 4L) with one ventral, three dorsal and a pair of parambulacral setae. Solenidion on tarsus II is situated dorsolaterally and 13. Tarsi III (Fig. 4M) and tarsi IV (Fig. 4N) with 4 and 3 dorsal setae, respectively, but no ventral setae and pair of parambulacral setae. Tarsi I–IV with two lateral claws and one median claw. Lateral claws with accessory process, lateral claws of legs II–IV with pecten.
Male. Male is similar to female except for the genital plate and much longer setae on AE and PE (Fig. 4D). GO surrounded by 10 pgs and four pairs of sgs are present, only anterior two of them arising from alveolus. GO 32 long, 23 wide. Distance between edges of GA and GO 47, equalling 0.63 of GO length. Spermatopositor 55 long, 38 wide, extending beyond GO and but not reaching anterior margin of GA.
Deutonymph. Dorsal and ventral plates and porose areolae on plates less developed than adults (Figs. 5F, G). OC posteriorly not extending to level of leg III insertions. GA is rounded with four pgs. Ventral gnathosomal base with a pair of alveolous porose areola, each has seven alveolous with modified rosetta pores surrounded by canaliculi. Tectum truncate. Rostrum triangular, extending beyond P-2. Rostral setae at tip of rostrum (Fig. 5H). Leg chaetotaxy (Figs. 5I to L) from trochanter to tarsus (bipectinated setae between parentheses, parambulacral setae and solenidia excluded): leg I: 1, 2, 4, 4, 7, 4; leg II: 1, 2, 3, 3, 7(1), 5; leg III: 0, 1, 3, 3, 4, 4; leg IV: 0, 0, 1, 1, 3, 3. Tibiae II to IV with 0, 1, 1, 1 bipectinate setae, respectively.
Remarks. Atelopsalis Trouessart, 1896 is a widely distributed genus, found from intertidal zone to abyssal depths and represented with eight species from all oceans (Bartsch 2009): A. newelli Bartsch 1973 and A. tricuspis Trouessart, 1896 from Josephine Seamount (North Eastern Atlantic) (Bartsch, 1973), A. aliger Bartsch, 1977 from Galapagos Islands (Bartsch 1977), A. ridens Bartsch, 1982 from Mozambique (West Indian Tropical) (Bartsch 1982), A. pacifica Bartsch, 1985 from Mactan Island, Philippines (southwestern Australia) (Bartsch 1985), A. meteorensis Bartsch, 2002 from Great Meteor Seamount (North Eastern Atlantic) (Bartsch 2002) and A. atlantica Pepato & Tiago, 2004 from Brazil (Pepato & Tiago 2004) and A. zanzibari Chatterjee, Pesic & De Troch, 2009 from Zanzibar (Tanzania) (Chatterjee et al. 2009). The genus is recognized by small-sized idiosoma, well-developed idiosomal plates, alveolous pores on anterior dorsal plate, large epimeral vesicles on anterior epimeral plate, three segmented palps and enlarged and armoured leg I with spine like projection (Pepato et al. 2004; Bartsch 2006). Durucan and Boyaci (2017) reported this species under the name of Atelopsalis pacifica Bartsch, 1985 for the Turkish halacarid fauna, but after careful re-examination, the present identified this species as Atelopsalis mediterranea sp. nov. in this study.
At a first glance, the new species, Atelopsalis mediterranea sp. nov., is similar to A. pacifica and A. tricuspis due to similar raised areolae on idiosoma dorsal, ventral and gnathosoma ventral, rosetta pores wides on AD and PD (Bartsch 1973). However, A. mediterranea sp. nov. clearly differs from both species by having much longer setae especially on OC, AE, PE and leg I and II (see arrowheads on Figs. 4G, H). Solenidion II (14) (Fig. 4L) is also clearly much longer than A. pacifica and A. tricuspis. There are also disparities between A. pacifica and the new species, according to Bartsch (2007), there is a single pore on AE at the level of the epimeral vesicles in A. pacifica while there are 5–10 pores on AE at the level of the epimeral vesicles in the new species, the frontal process are not extending anteriorly in the new species both adults and deutonymph while this frontal process clearly extending anteriorly in A. pacifica. The new species has one spiniform lamella on telofemur I (Fig. 5B), while two spiniform lamellae on telofemur I in A. pacifica.
The new species is distinguished from A. atlantica by having larger areolae on OC, shorter frontal process, narrower costae on AD and PD, less number of areolae between epimera I and II and posterior part of AE. A. zanzibari can be easily distinguished from any species of the genus having four costae on PD and A. ridens and A. newelli has no costae on PD of the genus, while the new species has a pair of costae on PD. A. meteorensis has no rosette pores on ventrolateral part of gnathosoma, while the present new species have rosetta pores on ventrolateral part of gnathosomal base. Additionally, posterior part of OC blunt in A. meteorensis while OC tapering posteriorly in the new species. A. newelli is distinguished from the new species by lacking frontal process, cornea on OC and areolae on OC, AE, PE. A. aliger has no areolae near posterolateral area of AE, while the new species have areolae posterolateral of AE (Chattejee et al. 2009).
description: Published as part of Durucan, Furkan, 2024, Psammobiont halacarid mites (Acari: Halacaridae) from Türkiye: description of two new species of the genus Atelopsalis Trouessart, 1896 and Scaptognathus Trouessart, 1889 and two new records, pp. 261-276 in Zootaxa 5536 (2) on pages 267-271, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5536.2.3, http://zenodo.org/record/14033572