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; c 2, d 2 and e 2 present; setae e 2 and f 2 in sublateral position aligned with c 2 and d 2, not on margin; setae h 2 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 (ps 1–3) 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 v 2; gnathosoma partially concealed by prodorsum; ventral plate weakly developed, membranous; genital plate weakly developed, membranous. Coxal seta 1 c 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.