Sperchon vesnae Pesic, 2003, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Pesic, Vladimir M.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2003
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Arachnida
Trombidiformes
Sperchonidae
Sperchon
Sperchon vesnae

description: Sperchon vesnae sp. nov.   
(Figs. 1­5, 7 ­11, Table 1)  
 Type material: Holotype: male, dissected and slide mounted in Hoyer's fluid; Serbia and Crna Gora: Crna Gora: CG11 Bjelasica Mt., spring of Biogradska Rijeka river, 1600 m asl., 23.07.2002, leg. Pesic. Paratypes: 19 males, 22 females, same data as holotype, 4 males and 4 females of them dissected and slide mounted on Hoyer's fluid; same station, 20.07.2000, leg. Pesic, 5 males, 11 females, one female of them dissected and slide mounted on Hoyer's fluid; same station, 25.07.2001, leg. Pesic, 7 males, 9 females.   
 Other material examined: Bulgaria: BU flö23 Rila, spring seep upstream from lake Skakavizka, 2190 m asl., 21.07.1966, leg. Flößner, one male, dissected and slide mounted on Hoyer's fluid.   
 Diagnosis: P­3 relatively longer (L>32%), P­4 relatively shorter (L<31%, ratio %L P­ 4/P­3 =1.0), slender P­1 (ratio L/HA 0.62­0.74); ejaculatory complex relatively long (L>250).   
 Description   
 Male (holotype, for all measurements, see Tab. 1): Body 731 in length and 586 in width. Dorsum: with platelets and glandularia arranged as infemale (Fig. 8). Ventrum (Fig. 1): coxae in four groups and extending beyond anterior margin of body; glandularia on third coxae absent. Measurements of mouthparts: capitulum (Fig. 2) 264 in length, chelicera (Fig. 4) 308 in length; palp (Fig. 3): palp total length 470, dorsal length and relative length (in parentheses % of total length) of PI­PV: P­1 28 (5.9), P­2 119 (25.4), P­3 154 (32.7), P­4 142 (30.3), P­5 27 (5.7); relative length ratio P­4/P­3 is 0.93; distal height and L/HA ratio (in parentheses) of PI­PV: P­1 38.5 (0.72), P­2 100 (1.19), P­3 56 (2.76), P­4 15 (9.24).   
Genital field: 183 in length, 146 in width; Ac­1­3 length 57.7­60.4­50; excretory pore unsclerotized. Ejaculatory complex as in Figure 5; 269 in length.  
Palp segments, L [% total L.]  
 Segm.6 186.4 178.0 192.3 6.65 197.7 188.5 203.8 6.39 173.0 196.1 Female (for all measurements, see Tab. 1): Body (n=5): 871­964 in length and 621­ 714 in width. Glandularia on third coxae absent. Shape of dorsum (Fig. 7) and morphology of palp segments (Fig. 8) as in male.   
 Discussion: Due to the character combination of absence of glandularia in Cx­3 and elongated gnathosoma, as well as general shape of palp segments, Sperchon vesnae sp.nov. is most similar to Sperchon longissimus Viets, 1920, and Sperchon squamosus Kramer, 1879. From the both species, the rather similar S. squamosus is differing in a shape of ejaculatory complex (see: Gerecke, 1991). From S. longissimus (in parentheses are given measurements based on the data from original description [Viets, 1920], France [Lundblad, 1956], Turkey [Boyaci & Özkan, 1994], and two further specimens from Bosnia [for detailed measurements: see Table 1]), S. vesnae sp.nov. differs in a more longer ejaculatory complex (compare Fig. 6 with Fig. 7), L>250 (<180, 155 in orginal description), in a relatively longer P­3, 31.4­33.8 in male, 33.1­34.2 in female (28.6–30.9 in male, 29.2­31.8 in female), a relatively shorter P­4, 29.7­30.3 in male, 29.0­ 29.7 in female (32.3­33.3 in male, 31.9­34.6 in female), a smaller ratio %L P­3/P­4 0.88­1.0 in male, 0.85­0.9 in female (1.11­1.14 in male, 1.07­1.14 in female), and a more slender P­1, ratio L/HA 0.6­0.74 in male, 0.68­0.78 in female (0.43­0.49 in male, 0.43 in female).   
Discriminant analysis of morphometric characters of the males of analysed taxa, showed that several characters: the ratio relative dorsal length P­4/P­3, relative dorsal length of P­4, and relative dorsal length of P­2, significantly contribute to discrimination of taxa on the first axis. Therefore they should be treated as stable characters for taxonomic use (Fig. 9).  
 Scatter plots of centroids of analysed taxa and sexes (Fig. 10) indicates that there is a very clear discrimination among taxa, in the projection of the first discriminant axis. The second axis discriminate sexes of S. vesnae sp. nov.   
8 DA 1 6  
4  
2  
0  
­2  
­4  
­6  
% L P­1 % L P­2 % L P­ 3 %L P­4 %L P­5 ratio %LP­4/P 3 3  
2  
1  
2 0 DA  
­1  
S. longissimus males  
­2 S. vesnae males  
S. vesnae females  
­3  
­60 ­40 ­20 0 20 40  
DA 1  
On the base of presented set of morphometric characters (relative dorsal lengths of P­ 1­5, ratio relative dorsal length P­4/P­3, and ratio L/HA of P­1­4), it was observed that the  
 same pattern of discrimination was found in the individual specimens (Fig. 11), with no additional discrimination between specimens belonging to the same species and different localities (S.longissimus – France [1], Turkey [1] and Bosnia [2]; S.vesnae sp.nov. – Crna Gora [5,5], Bulgaria [1]).   
 Etymology: The species is named after Vesna Vukasinovic, in appreciation of her care and support.   
 Biology: As indicated by the two known records, Sperchon vesnae sp. nov. is a crenobiontic species, which inhabits preferably springs at higher elevations.   
 Distribution: Serbia and Crna Gora, Bulgaria.   
4  
3  
2  
1  
0  
2  
DA ­1  
­2
description: Published as part of Pesic, Vladimir M., 2003, New records of the water mite genera Atractides Koch and Sperchon Kramer from the Balkan, with the description of one new species, pp. 1-12 in Zootaxa 168 on pages 2-7, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.156779