Sperchon

Sabatino, Antonio Di, Gerecke, Reinhard, Gledhill, Terence & Smit, Harry, 2009, On the taxonomy of water mites (Acari: Hydrachnidia) described from the Palaearctic, part 2: Hydryphantoidea and Lebertioidea, Zootaxa 2266, pp. 1-34 : 23

Sperchon (s. str.) mutilus Koenike, 1898

Charoelia schloethi Bader, 1985 , nov. syn.

Material examined: Charoelia schloethi Bader 1985 , holotype 3 NHMB Switzerland, S-Chanf, NP 83/48, 29.09.1983, Bader. Sperchon mutilus , Germany, numerous 3 and Ƥ from various spring habitats in the Berchtesgaden National Park ( Gerecke & Martin 2006).

Discussion: The single male specimen on which this taxon is based, has a strange malformation of the ventroposterior idiosoma that has not been depicted correctly by the author. In fact, a reverse V-shaped bifurcation of the median line in the postgenital area results in an enlargement and deformation of the postgenital sclerite, and doubling of both the anal pore and its flanking glandularia. This is obviously a case of an individual developmental disturbance. In morphology and setation of palps and legs, the specimen agrees with S. mutilus , a species of which a large population was collected together with C. schloethi . Also, the leg proportions given by Bader (1985) lie within the variability range of S. mutilus . Charoelia schloethi is a junior synonym of the latter species. Consequently, the genus name Charoelia Bader, 1985 becomes a junior synonym of Sperchon Kramer, 1877 .