Scleriacarus, Beard & Seeman, 2025

Beard, Jennifer J. & Seeman, Owen D., 2025, A new flat mite genus and five new species (Tetranychoidea: Tenuipalpidae) from native Australian sedges (Cyperaceae), Zootaxa 5637 (1), pp. 1-56 : 42

publication ID

https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5637.1.1

publication LSID

lsid:zoobank.org:pub:B743993E-AF9C-4A08-9EEC-B8199D1AA343

DOI

https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15584091

persistent identifier

https://treatment.plazi.org/id/03E1AB02-FFB1-357B-9AB6-C41BFBBEFA3F

treatment provided by

Plazi

scientific name

Scleriacarus
status

gen. nov.

Scleriacarus gen. nov. Beard & Seeman

Type species— Scleriacarus gilberti sp. nov. Beard & Seeman

Diagnosis. Adult female. Body moderately elongate, slightly more than twice as long as wide; prodorsal and opisthonotal shields weakly developed. Palps 3-segmented; palp tarsus with 2 terminal phaneres (both long). Anterior margin of prodorsum with short median forked projection forming a notch; dorsal opisthosoma with 9 pairs of setae (c3, d1, d3, e1, e3, f2, f3, h1, h2 present; c1, c2, d2, e2 absent); dorsal setae short, fine with blunt rounded tips; seta h2 not flagellate (flagellate only in larva). Ventral and genital shields not developed, both regions membranous and merged together; two pairs of ps setae, anal valves membranous, setae ps3 inserted far anterior to ps2; ventral setae g1 inserted anterior to g2; 4a1–2 present, elongate, fine; lacking supernumerary coxal setae 3a2. Trochanters 1-1-1-0 (v′ added to tr I–II in deutonymph; l′ added to tr III in protonymph; v′ absent on tr IV); femora 4-4-2-2, femur I with d inserted centrally, broad, barbed (heteromorphic with respect to dorsal idiosomal setae), femur II with d inserted laterally; genua 2-2-0-0 (d absent on ge I–II); tarsi 7(1)-7(1)-5-5, setae ftʺ and tcʺ absent on tarsi I–II, setae ftʹ on tarsi I–IV finely elongate. Tarsal claws and empodia pad-like. Adult male. With solenidion present on tarsi I–IV.

Remarks. Of the sedge-associated genera, Scleriacarus gen. nov. appears closest to Acaricis in sharing the same body shape (i.e. not significantly elongate), the same complement of dorsal opisthosomal setae, a forked median prodorsal projection, two pairs of 4a setae, setae g1 inserted anterior to g2, setae ps3 far anterior to ps2, lacking ftʹʹ on tarsi I–II and males with a solenidion on tarsi III–IV (in most species of Acaricis ). Scleriacarus differs from Acaricis by having setae h2 unmodified (flagelliform in Acaricis ), lacking tcʹʹ on tarsi I–II, having 3- segmented palps (versus 4-segmented in Acaricis ), and seta d on femur I in a dorsal position (lateral in Acaricis ). The absence of setae ft″ on tarsi I–II is also found in the other sedge-inhabiting genera Cyperacarus , Gahniacarus and Prolixus , but the loss of tcʹʹ is shared only with Cyperacarus and Gahniacarus .

Kingdom

Plantae

Phylum

Tracheophyta

Class

Liliopsida

Order

Poales

SuperFamily

Tetranychoidea

Family

Cyperaceae

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