Atractides cf. spatiosus (K. Viets, 1935)

Pesic, Vladimir, Yam, Rita S. W., Chan, Benny K. K. & Chatterjee, Tapas, 2012, Water mites (Acari, Hydrachnidia) from Baishih River drainage in Northern Taiwan, with description of two new species, ZooKeys 203, pp. 65-83 : 75-76

Atractides cf. spatiosus (K. Viets, 1935) Figs 9A, 10B

Material examined.

ECL-BA-1: 01.vi.2009 0/1/0; 02.vii.2010 0/1/0. ECL-BA-2: iv.2010 0/2/0; vi.2010 0/1/0. ECL-BA-3: 03.ix.2009 0/3/0. ECL-BA-4: iii.2010 0/4/0 (0/1/0 mounted); iii.2010 0/1/0. ECL-BA-5: iv.2010 0/1/0; 07.vii.2010 0/4/0. ECL-BA-6: iii.2010 0/1/0; iv.2010 0/2/0; vi.2010 0/1/0; ix.2010 0/1/0.

Remarks.

The examined female specimens from Baishih River system resemble Oriental Atractides spatiosus (K. Viets, 1935). A problem exists regarding the similarity between Atractides spatiosus and Atractides cognatus (K. Viets, 1935), a further taxon originally introduced as a subspecies and later elevated to species rank by Pešić and Smit (2009). However, the populations attributed by Pešić and Smit (2009) to Atractides cognatus differ from the original description of the later (see: K. Viets 1935) in the shape of excretory pore (surrounded by narrow sclerotized ring in original description of Atractides cognatus ), and probably represented an undescribed species. For the time being, the sclerotization of the excretory pore (smooth in Atractides spatiosus vs. sclerotized in Atractides cognatus , as shown in Fig. 9D), more elongated P-3 (compare Figs 9A and -B) and the shape of I-L-5 and -6 (compare Figs 10A and -B) appear to be the characteristics most important for distin guishing populations attributed to Atractides spatiosus and Atractides cognatus , respectively. However, our assignments to Atractides spatiosus and Atractides cognatus are difficult due to the lacking of males, and furthermore is based mainly on non-identity with alternative species.

Distribution.

SE Asia. New for Taiwan.