Chaudhripalpus Mesa, Welbourn and Evans, 2009

Beard, Jennifer J., Seeman, Owen D. & Bauchan, Gary R., 2014, Tenuipalpidae (Acari: Trombidiformes) from Casuarinaceae (Fagales), Zootaxa 3778 (1), pp. 1-157 : 6-7

Chaudhripalpus Mesa, Welbourn and Evans, 2009

Type species. Crossipalpus creelae Smiley, Frost and Gerson, 1996 , by original designation.

Diagnosis. All life stages: dorsal opisthosoma with 9 pairs of palmate setae; c2, d2, e2, and f2 absent; setae h2 similar in size and form to other dorsal setae; palps 4-segmented, palp setal formula 0, 0, 0, 2(1); immature stages with anterior margin of prodorsum smoothly rounded, without projections/notches; ventral plate absent; 3 pairs of pseudanal setae (ps1–3) on well developed plates. Adult female: cuticle between gnathosoma and prodorsum produced into 1 pair of blunt, broadly triangular membranous lobes (with median notch formed between the lobes), anterior to and folded under anterior margin of prodorsum and setae v2, often appear slightly retracted back into body; gnathosoma completely concealed by prodorsum; genital plate weakly developed, membranous; metapodal plates not developed; coxae I without 1c; trochanters I–IV 1-1 -1-0 or 0-0-1-0 (v ′ present or absent on tr I–II, absent on tr III–IV; l' always present on tr III); femora I–IV 3-3 -2-1; genua I–IV bare; tibiae 4-4-3-3; tarsi I–IV without tc′′.

Males unknown.

Species. Two species: Ch. creelae , Ch. costacola .

Hosts and distribution. Casuarinaceae , Australia.

Remarks. Mesa et al. (2009) state the following characters for the genus Chaudhripalpus : five-segmented palps with two simple setae, terminal podomere short, with one simple seta, one eupathidium and an elongate solenidion; ventral setae 4a absent; aggenital (ag), genital (g) and pseudanal (ps) setae smooth. However on examining the type series, we found these characters to be incorrect. The correct characters are as follows: four-segmented palps with no simple setae, terminal podomere with one solenidion and one seta-like eupathidium; ventral setae 4a present; aggenital, genital and pseudanal setae are all barbed (ps3 only weakly barbed).

Chaudhripalpus is close to the monotypic genus Tegopalpus , differing only in having a four segmented palp (three segmented in Tegopalpus ) and in having setae v" present on tibiae I–IV. This genus is tentatively retained as a separate genus, as the three segmented palp of Tegopalpus is autapomorphic within the Tegopalpinae and other mites found on Casuarinaceae .

Males remain unknown for Chaudhripalpus , but like the closely related genus Tegopalpus , we expect that the male and female solenidia would be of similar length and size.