Eylais mutila Koenike, 1897

Davids, Kees, Sabatino, Antonio Di, Gerecke, Reinhard, Gledhill, Terence & Smit, Harry, 2005, On the taxonomy of water mites (Acari: Hydrachnidia) described from the Palaearctic, part 1: Hydrachnidae, Limnocharidae and Eylaidae, Zootaxa 1061, pp. 36-64 : 60-61

Eylais mutila Koenike, 1897

Eylais rimosa proceripalpis K.Viets (1930) , syn. nov.

Material examined: Eylais rimosa proceripalpis K. Viets, 1930 holotype deutonymph SMF 3818.

Discussion: Eylais mutila and E. longipalpis are often considered conspecific. Differences are however found in the larvae. Wainstein (1980) collected females and bred the larvae from eggs. It is not understood how he separated females of Eylais mutila from E. longipalpis . As stated first by K.O.Viets (1949), Eylais rimosa proceripalpis has no taxonomic relationship to its presumptive stem species. A re­examination of the holotype revealed that we have in fact to deal with a deutonymph with a character combination typical for E. mutila (coxae reticulation with roundish meshes, anterior margin of eye bridge convex). Therefore we consider it a junior synonym of the latter.

Eylais planipons Walter, 1924

Eylais puripons K.Viets, 1930 , syn. nov.

Eylais bisinuosa oligotricha Lundblad 1936 , syn. nov. Eylais planipons novata K.Viets 1942 , syn. nov. Eylais canariensis Lundblad 1962 a, syn. nov.

Material examined: Eylais planipons female, Greece, Lesbos, 4 km east of Ayia Paraskevi, in a spring­fed drinking basin for cattle, leg. A.C. Ellis­Adam, 8 November 1973, slide 319, coll. Davids, ZMAN; France, Pyrenees, stream Gave d'Aspe, 9 August 1990, female, leg. H. Smit ( ZMAN); Eylais puripons K.Viets , holotype deutonymph, SMF 3891; Eylais bisinuosa oligotricha Lundblad , holotype male, SMNH 1398; Eylais planipons novata K.Viets (= E. planipons magna Walter, 1931 ), lectotype female, here designated, NHMB XXV /98­99 (Sahara, Imarera, 24.03.1924 coll Seurat), paralectotype male, NHMB XXV / 96­97 (dito); Eylais canariensis Lundblad , holotype male, SMNH 5992.

Discussion: In his analysis of the variability of Eylais canariensis , a species described by Lundblad (1962a) from Tenerife, K.O. Viets (1969) demonstrated that characters and measurements of that species lie within the range of E. planipons novata and designated it as a junior synonym of that taxon. From our revisions of the type specimens of Eylais puripons , described by K.Viets (1930), E. bisinuosa oligotricha , described by Lundblad (1936), and E. planipons novata K.Viets (1942) described by Walter under the preoccupied name E. planipons magna , and in comparison with additional, recently collected material we found that all these taxa agree generally with the typical character combination of E. planipons . Important common characters are found in the frontal sclerite (anteriorly slightly indented, porous area of eye capsules anteriorly enlarged, occasionally enclosing the neighbouring setae), the large mouth disk (greater in diameter than the distance between mouth disk and posterior margin of gnathosoma) and the shape of the ventrodistal setae of P­3 (short and enlarged). The only notable, but in our opinion insignificant difference is found in Eylais planipons novata , which is slightly larger in dimensions. We conclude that all these taxa are junior synonyms of E. planipons . Karl Viets (1930) described the closely related Eylais gibbosa from Spain. This species differs from Eylais planipons in having longer eye capsules, where the setal insertions are not included in the capsules and longer palps, which are richer in setae, especially P­4.