Stygohalacarus Viets, 1934

Bartsch, Ilse, 2015, The genital area of Halacaridae (Acari), life stages and development of morphological characters and implication on the classification, Zootaxa 3919 (2), pp. 201-259 : 231

Stygohalacarus Viets, 1934

Type species. Stygohalacarus scupiensis Viets, 1934 .

Male. Genital plate separated from anal plate. Male GO rather large (length slightly less than half length of GP). Five pairs of external acetabula on genital plate posterolateral to genital opening ( Viets 1934b: fig. 5). AE with pair of epimeral pores.

Female. Not known.

Juveniles. In nymphal stage (deutonymph) genital and anal plate separated. Genital plate with three pairs of external gac, two pairs of slender pgs and two pairs of sgs. AE with pair of epimeral pores. Protonymph and larva not known.

Remarks. A single species has been described ( Viets 1934a, 1934b), extracted from a well in Macedonia. It is similar to species of the Soldanellonyx monardi group, though is easily distinguished from these due to the remarkably wide and coarsely bipectinate setae on the genua and tibiae. The presence of epimeral pores in adults is a character shared with S. monardi .

Himejacarus , with a single species, H. morimotoi , seems to be similar to Stygohalacarus . Aside characters common in species of the genera Limnohalacarus and Soldanellonyx , Stygohalacarus and Himejacarus also share the presence of very wide and coarsely bipectinate setae on the genua and tibiae and the presence of epimeral pores. The two species are known by their males. Studies on more material of both species may prove them to be congeners.