Bromeliacarus cardoso Pesic

Pesic, Vladimir, Piccoli, Gustavo Caue de Oliveira, de Araujo, Marcel Santos & Rezende, Jose Marcos, 2015, A new genus of water mites (Acari, Hydrachnidia, Wettinidae) from bromeliad phytotelmata in the Brazilian Atlantic rainforest, ZooKeys 516, pp. 27-33 : 30

Taxon classification Animalia Prostigmata Wettinidae

Bromeliacarus cardoso Pesic sp. n. Figs 1, 2

Type series.

Holotype female, dissected and slide mounted in Hoyer’s fluid, Brazil, São Paulo, Cananéia, 25°04'16"S, 47°55'23"W, in Quesnelia arvensis (Vellozo) Mez. ( Bromeliaceae ), v.2013 col. Gustavo Cauê de Oliveira Piccoli. Paratype: three females (two of them damaged, palps and legs lacking), one male (damaged, palps and legs lacking), same data as holotype, two females (both damaged) and one male dissected and slide mounted in Hoyer’s fluid.

Diagnosis.

As given for genus.

Description.

Character states as given in generic diagnosis.

Measurements.

Female (holotype, in parentheses some measurements of paratype): Idiosoma (ventral view: Fig. 1B) L/W 434/375 (441-456/367-400). Dorsal shield (Figs 1A, 2D) L/W 363/308 (398-409/309-322), ratio 1.18 (1.27-1.29); gnathosomal bay L 69 (78); distance between IV-leg insertions 172 (173); gonopore L/W 69/39 (63/40), distance between most lateral pairs of Ac 146 (151). Palp (Figs 1F-G): total L 177; L/H, L/H ratio: P-1, 25/14, 1.8; P-2, 44/28, 1.6; P-3, 32/20, 1.6; P-4, 48/15, 3.1; P-5, 28/8, 3.4; gnathosoma vL 72, with apodemes 105; chelicera total L 86. Legs: dL of I-L (Fig. 1D): 41, 51, 40, 52, 51, 74; I-L-6 H 26, I-L-6 dL/H ratio 2.8; dL of II-L-2-6: 59, 44, 55, 64, 72; dL of III-L-2-6: 56, 45, 59, 72, 72; dL of IV-L (Fig. 1I): 75, 56, 66, 69, 71, 74.

Male: Idiosoma (ventral view: Fig. 1C) L/W 434/375. Dorsal shield L/W 384/306, ratio 1.26; gnathosomal bay L 77; distance between IV-leg insertions 167; gonopore L/W 54/6, distance between most lateral pairs of Ac 148.

Etymology.

Named after the locality (State Park of Ilha do Cardoso, São Paulo, Brazil) where the new species was detected.

Variability.

The number of acetabula flanking the gonopore varies from 7 to 9 on each side. We found three different combinations Ac numbers flanking (right+left) the gonopore: 7+9 (one male), 8+8 (one female) and 8+9 (two females).

Distribution.

Brazil; only known from the type locality.

Habitat and biology.

Members of Bromeliacarus cardoso sp. n., are unusual about their habitats, because they appear to live only in the water-filled leaf axils of the bromeliads, where they walk attached to submerged detritus in bromeliads tank or free swimming in water column. Additional collecting effort is clearly needed in order to understand life history as well as habitat preferences of this species. However, as already mentioned by Albertoni and Fikáček (2014), the usual method used for searching for fauna inside bromeliads, i.e. dismantling the leaves one by one and washing the content in a tray, may not to be effective enough for very small species.