Arrenurus (Arrenurus) szalayi Lundblad, 1954

Pešić, Vladimir, Zawal, Andrzej, Ferreira, Sónia, Benitez-Bosco, Laura, Cruz-Oliveira, Ana, Girão, Dinis, Padilha, Adriana, Turaccio, Paolo, Rossini, Samantha, Ballini, Lorenzo, Staffoni, Giorgia, Fratini, Sara, Ciofi, Claudio, Iannucci, Alessio, Ekrem, Torbjørn & Stur, Elisabeth, 2024, DNA barcode library of Portuguese water mites, with the descriptions of two new species (Acari, Hydrachnidia), ZooKeys 1217, pp. 119-171 : 119-171

Arrenurus (Arrenurus) szalayi Lundblad, 1954

Material examined.

Portugal, Beja • Mértola, Moinho de Alferes 1 , 37.502°N, 7.69°W, 19 May 2023, leg. Ferreira, Benitez-Bosco, Ekrem, Stur & Turaccio, 2 ♂ incl. one juv., (both sequenced) .

Remarks.

The examined males from Moinho de Alferes match the description of A. szalayi , a species originally described from Ribeira d’Odivelas in Portugal ( Lundblad 1956). The sequenced specimens from Portugal clustered within one BIN ( BOLD: ACS 0403), which in addition to the specimens from Portugal, includes a number of specimens collected from a large geographic area, from Norway to South Africa and from the Netherlands to Kyrgyzstan, and that are morphologically assigned to A. bicuspidator Berlese, 1885 , or to A. radiatus Piersig, 1894 . From both species, A. szalayi , at least morphologically, can be easily separated by the characteristic shape of the male petiole (see Lundblad 1956: fig. 161 A). Further research is needed to understand the factors behind this grouping and the implication of this lack of genetic differentiation between three morphological different species.

Distribution.

Portugal; previously reported from Ribeira de Odivelas, Alentejo ( Lundblad 1954, 1956).