Hydryphantes armentarius Gerecke, 1996

Pešić, Vladimir, Bankowska, Aleksandra, Goldschmidt, Tom, Hårsaker, Karstein, Jovanović, Milica, Kaitetzidou, Elisavet, Krakowiak, Maja, Kozłowska, Aleksandra, Michaloudi, Evangelia, Michoński, Grzegorz, Miliša, Marko, Pozojević, Ivana, Rewicz, Tomasz, Rusiniak, Oliwia, Sobolak, Karolina, Szućko, Izabela, Stryjecki, Robert, Stur, Elisabeth, Szlauer-Łukaszewska, Agnieszka, Szenejko, Magdalena & Zawal, Andrzej, 2025, Checklist of water mites from the Balkan Peninsula: second supplement, new DNA barcodes and description of a new species, Zootaxa 5676 (1), pp. 1-74 : 21-22

Hydryphantes armentarius Gerecke, 1996

Published records: Croatia: Pozojević et al. (2021); Serbia: “ Hydryphantes parmulatus ” Jovanović et al. (2024) .

Distribution: Central Mediterranean (Tyrrhenian Islands, Central Italy, Balkans, Pyrennes).

New barcode sequences: Montenegro: HYDMN421-24, HYDMN422-24, HYDMN423-24.

BIN: BOLD:ADL3822.

BIN distribution: the Netherlands, Spain, Serbia, Montenegro.

Remarks. Re-examination of the specimen published by Jovanović et al. (2024) under the name Hydryphantes parmulatus Koenike, 1912 showed that this identification was erroneous, and the specimen belongs to H. armentarius . As noticed by Valdecasas et al. (2019) and Peláez et al. (2022), the available sequences of H. armentarius were paired with three H. parmulatus sequences from the Netherlands available in the BOLD database. However, examination of the latter material from the Netherlands (H. Smit personal communication) reveals that it belongs to H. parmulatus . Therefore, as suggested by H. Smit (personal communication), two possibilities arise: i) Hydryphantes parmulatus and H. armentarius are synonyms; ii) The two species cannot be distinguished on the basis of COI. To this interesting question, further research is needed, ideally including both, mitochondrial and nuclear markers, within an integrative taxonomic framework.

This species was collected (together with Sperchon squamosus Kramer, 1879 ) in a helocrene spring ( Fig. 1 ) located in the Komarnica valley in northern Montenegro which is threatened by permanent flooding due to a planned hydroelectric power plant. With these findings, we contribute to the recent call (https://www.balkanrivers. net/en/news/scientists-across-europe-oppose-hydropower-komarnica-canyon) that the scientific community and environmental NGO’s sent to the Montenegrin government to immediately halt plans to construct the “Komarnica” hydropower plant in the canyon of the same name. This is a new record for Montenegro.

Subfamily Protziinae Koenike, 1909

Figures

FIGURE 1. Helocrenic spring located in the Komarnica valley in northern Montenegro (sampling site of Hydryphantes armentarius and Sperchon squamosus). Photo by V. Pešić (22 May 2023).