Scaptognathus sabularius André, 1961

Durucan, Furkan, Online, Published & Version, Final, 2018, New record of the genus Scaptognathus (Acari: Halacaridae) from Antalya with a checklist of marine halacarid mites of Turkey, Turkish Journal of Zoology 42 (4), pp. 499-507 : 500-506

Scaptognathus sabularius André, 1961

Figures 3A–3H

Material examined: 11 females, medium-coarse sand (7 m), Hamit Bey Plajı (FD-HAL/25).

Morphology: Dorsal plates and gnathosoma as in S. hallezi . AD large, slightly oval. PD narrow posteriorly. Dorsum furnished with 7 pairs of dorsal setae distributed as in Figure 3A. Genitoanal plate of female tripartite and GO surrounded by 6 setae ( Figures 3B and 3C). Ratio of gnathosomal length/idiosomal length is 0.6. Length of legs I, II, III, IV = 212, 215, 237, 250 µm, respectively. Chaetotaxy from trochanter to tibia as follows: Leg I, 0, 1, 2, 2, 7; Leg II, 0, 1, 3, 2, 4; Leg III,?, 1, 1, 1, 3, 6; Leg IV, 1, 1, 1, 3, 5 ( Figures 3D–3H).

Remarks: The characteristics given for the species by André (1961) and Bartsch (1986a) agree with my specimens. The differences between the two species have already been discussed in the remarks on S. hallezi above.

Checklist of halacarid species known from Turkey. The first studies on Mediterranean marine halacarids (excluding the Black Sea and Marmara Sea) were begun as late as the 1900s by Trouessart (1889), Trouessart and Neumann (1893), Voinov (1896), and Police (1909). During the 20th century, a second wave of studies were initiated by Viets (1935, 1939, 1940), Angelier (1954), Laubier (1960), André (1961), Morselli (1970, 1981), Travé (1972), Morselli and Mari (1979, 1981, 1982, 1985, 1993), Bartsch (1986a, 1986b, 1986c), Mari and Morselli (1990), and Morselli et al. (1998). Finally, the third phase of research was performed by Mytilineou et al. (2016), Stamouli et al. (2017), Durucan (2018), and Durucan and Boyaci (2017, 2018a, 2018b). From this family, more than 100 species have been identified in the Mediterranean

DURUCAN / Turk J Zool

Sea according to the published studies mentioned above. So far, 16 studies have been conducted along the coasts of Turkey ( Table 3; Figure 4). As a result of these studies, 34 species belonging to 18 genera have been recorded from the coasts of Turkey, of which 15 species were found on the west coast of Antalya, Turkey. The genus Copidognathus ranks first with 7 species, followed by Agauopsis with 6 species, Rhombognathus with 5 species, Scaptognathus with 2 species, and all remaining genera (Acarochelopedia, Acaromantis , Actacarus , Agaue , Anomalohalacarus , Atelopsalis , Camactognathus , Copidognathides , Halacaropsis , Isobactrus , Lohmannella , Rhombognathides , Simognathus , and Thalassarachna ) with 1 species each.

The number of Turkish Mediterranean marine halacarid species (15 species) is within the range of other Mediterranean areas, such as Italy (28 species), Croatia (21 species), France (19 species), Egypt (3 species), Algeria (1 species), Greece (1 species), and Tunisia (1 species); however, given that Turkey has over 8300 km of coastline, more species are likely to be recorded. Further studies aimed to improve our knowledge of Turkish marine halacarid mites should focus on unstudied areas and habitats in Turkey such as Aegean Sea and Sea of Marmara.

Acknowledgments

I thank the anonymous reviewers of a previous version of this manuscript for providing insightful comments. I also greatly appreciate the assistance of Dr Heather