Atractides placocallosus, Bader, 1994

Gerecke, Reinhard, 2003, Water mites of the genus Atractides Koch, 1837 (Acari: Parasitengona: Hygrobatidae) in the western Palaearctic region: a revision, Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 138, pp. 141-378 : 320

ATRACTIDES PLACOCALLOSUS BADER, 1994

Syn. to A. walteri (K. Viets, 1925) : syn. nov.

Type series: Holotype ♀, NHMB Atractides placocallosus ♀ Ova dals Buogls 25.9.1981 NP 91/64 ; Holotypus.

Discussion: Bader overlooked the presence of dorsal plates in a slide preparation of A. loricatus authorized by Piersig (here designated as lectotype of that species), convincing himself in the process that Motaş & Angelier (1927), together with all subsequent authors, had a mistaken concept of the species. He introduced a new name for all the material published under that name since then. His idea was that A. placocallosus should be a species with typical dorsal muscle attachment sclerites (as described many times for A. loricatus ) and a sclerotized excretory pore. He came close to actually introducing a valid new species because, in contrast to the established opinion about the morphology of A. loricatus , the type revision reveals the absence of an anal sclerite. However, a further error clearly occurred when he selected the holotype: the slide-mounted specimen represents A. walteri , and not a member of the loricatus species group.