Limnohalacarus WALTER, 1917

Bartsch, I., 2013, Freshwater Halacarid Mites (Acari: Halacaridae) From Madagascar. New Records And The Description Of A New Species, Acarologia 53 (1), pp. 77-87 : 78

GENUS Limnohalacarus WALTER, 1917

Type species — Halacarus wackeri Walter, 1914 .

Diagnosis (adults) — Plates delicately and evenly punctate. Dorsum with anterior and posterior dorsal plate and pair of ocular plates, five pairs of gland pores and three to four pairs of very short dorsal setae. Ocular plate and sclerite with third gland pore often fused. Venter with anterior and pair of posterior epimeral plates and genital plate. Either plates separated or all fused to a shield. Anterior epimeral plate with three pairs of setae, posterior plates with a dorsal, lateral and ventral seta. Acetabula arranged along lateral margins of genital plate (or part corresponding to this plate). Females with 3-10 pairs of perigenital setae, males with 17- 30 pairs of setae. Female genital opening near posterior margin of genital plate and covered by large genital sclerites. Male genital opening smaller, removed from posterior margin of genitoanal plate. Anal sclerites much smaller than genital sclerites. Base of gnathosoma wide, rostrum conical. Palps four-segmented, attached dorsally. Second palpal segment with short basal and long distal seta, third segment with large ventral spine, fourth segment with six setae and apical spine. Leg segments slen- der, in general bearing conspicuously long setae. Genua I and II shorter than these legs’ telofemora. Tibia III with four ventral setae, mostly two of them bipectinate. Tarsi I to IV with 1, 0, 0, 0 ventral setae and 4, 4, 4, 3 dorsal setae. Tarsi I to III with solenidia in dorsolateral position. Paired claws of tarsi with pectines. Arrangement and size of tines on claw I different from those of following tarsi.

Comments — The genus in spread on all continents except Antarctica. Records are from fresh water as well as from coastal and inland saline waters. Limnohalacarus includes at present 13 species ( Bartsch 2009, 2013).