Meyeraepalpus Smiley, Frost and Gerson, 1996

Beard, Jennifer J., Seeman, Owen D. & Bauchan, Gary R., 2014, Tenuipalpidae (Acari: Trombidiformes) from Casuarinaceae (Fagales), Zootaxa 3778 (1), pp. 1-157 : 69

Meyeraepalpus Smiley, Frost and Gerson, 1996

Type species. Meyeraepalpus delfinadae Smiley, Frost and Gerson 1996 , by original designation.

Diagnosis. All life stages: dorsal opisthosoma with 13 pairs of broadly lanceolate dorsal setae; c2, d2 and e2 present; setae e2 and f 2 in sublateral position aligned with c2 and d2, not on margin; setae h2 similar in size and form to other dorsal setae; palps 5-segmented, palp setal formula 0, 0, 0, 2, 3(1); 3 pairs of pseudanal setae (ps1–3) on weakly developed membranous anal plates; immature stages with anterior margin of prodorsum smoothly rounded, without projections or notches. Adult female: Anterior margin of prodorsum with triangular lobes present, within anterior prodorsal concavity, anterior to setae v2; gnathosoma partially concealed by prodorsum; ventral plate weakly developed, membranous; genital plate weakly developed, membranous. Coxal seta 1c present. Solenidia of male swollen, much larger than those of female.

Remarks. Smiley et al. (1996) designated Meyeraepalpus delfinadae as the type species for the genus, which also included Me. strandtmanni . Mesa et al. (2009) moved Me. delfinadae to Aegyptobia and erected the new genus Magdalenapalpus for Me. strandtmanni . Recently we were able to recollect Me. delfinadae , remount specimens studied by Smiley et al. (1996), study fresh specimens under the low temperature scanning electron microscope, and perform a cladistic analysis to show that Meyeraepalpus is in fact a valid genus, and is rediagnosed above. We agree with Mesa et al. (2009) that the second species originally grouped with Me. delfinadae , Ma. strandtmanni , does in fact represent a different genus and accept Magdalenapalpus , which we also redescribe and rediagnose.