On the identity of Litarachna divergens Walter, 1925 (Acari, Hydrachnidia: Pontarachnidae), with description of one new species
Pesic, V.; Smit, H. (2015). On the identity of Litarachna divergens Walter, 1925 (Acari, Hydrachnidia: Pontarachnidae), with description of one new species. Mar. Biodiv. 46(1): 51-57. https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12526-015-0316-x
In: Marine Biodiversity. Springer: Heidelberg; Berlin. ISSN 1867-1616; e-ISSN 1867-1624, more
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Marine mites, Mediterranean Sea, Sea of Japan/Eastern Sea, New species, Taxonomy |
| Abstract |
Litarachna divergens was introduced by Walter (Intern Revue Hydrobiol Hydrogr 14:1–54, 1925) for specimens collected and described by Von Schaub (Sitzungsber Kaiserl Akad Wiss Math-Naturwiss Cl 98:163–179, 1889) from Trieste (Adriatic Sea). Since then, this species has appeared regularly in faunistic lists of marine species living in the Mediterranean Sea, Black Sea, and Sea of Japan. As the holotype of L. divergens is lost, and the original description is of poor quality and insufficient to ascertain its relationships, we consider it a species incerta. Litarachna thetis n. sp. is established as a new name for previously reported populations under the name L. divergens from the Sea of Japan (Uchida, J Fac Sci Hokkaido Univ Sapporo (s. 6) Zool 4(4):183–195, 1935) and from South Korea assigned by Pešić et al. (Syst Appl Acarol 13:70–74, 2008) to L. denhami. Finally, we provide a key for the three species treated in this paper. |
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