Agauopsis brevipalpus (Trouessart, 1889)

Durucan, Furkan, Paz, Juan Carlos De La & Hernández-Teixidor, David, 2023, Halacaridae (Acari) from Tenerife (Canary Islands), Persian Journal of Acarology 12 (1), pp. 1-19 : 4

Agauopsis brevipalpus (Trouessart, 1889)

Material examined

One female (FDHAL-21/2) and three males, El Pris ( Gelidium sp. , upper mid-littoral zone); one female and one male, La Barranquera ( Gelidium pusillum , upper mid-littoral zone).

Diagnosis

The length of females was between 400 and 460 µm, and for males, 450 µm. Idiosoma wide and heavily armed. Integument of plates brownish. Raised porose areolae of dorsal plates with canaliculi. Ostia lacking. AD with small frontal process and the plate clearly raised H-like costa. OC with two corneae, porose areola triangular in outline and rounded angles. Eye spots present beneath AD and OC. PD with pair of medial and lateral costae and the plate anteriorly rounded. Ventral plates porose and faintly reticulate. AE wide, posterior margin of AE and anterior margin of GA truncate. Gnathosoma and palps are slender. Rostrum about as long as gnathosomal base ( Bartsch 1996) ( Fig. 3B ).

Remarks

This is one of the species most encountered within a genus widely distributed and reported in the Black Sea, Mediterranean Sea and eastern Atlantic ( Bartsch 2004; Durucan and Boyaci 2018; Durucan 2020, 2021). In the Atlantic Ocean, A. brevipalpus has been reported from the Azores, Canary Islands, British Isles and continental Spain ( Bartsch 2015).

Figures

Figure 3. Light-microscope images of halacarid species from Tenerife – A. Agaue adriatica (female); B. Agauopsis brevipalpus (female); C. Agauopsis microhyncha (male); D. Agauopsis tricuspis (male); E. Copidognathus lamelloides (male); F. Copidognathus magnipalpus (male); G. Copidognathus remipes (male); H. Halacarus actenos (male); I. Halacarus subtilis (female) (Scale bars: 100 µm).