Atractides (s. str.) clavipes Lundblad, 1954

Gerecke, Reinhard, 2021, The water mites of the family Hygrobatidae (Acari, Hydrachnidia) in Italy, Zootaxa 5009 (1), pp. 1-85 : 16

Atractides (s. str.) clavipes Lundblad, 1954

(Figs 28 E; 31 L)

Material examined: Calabria: I 1133, 1/0/0 slide; Lazio: I 887, 0/1/0 slide; I 1291, 1/1 slide; Lombardia: I TG 13-06a, 0/1/0; Sardegna: I TG 17-03a-b, 1/2/0; Sicilia: Etna, Nebrodi, Peloritani, Sicani. I 45, 3/4/0 slide; I 470 Int, 1/0/0 slide; I 531, 2/0/0 slide; I 607, 1/0/0 slide; I 612, 2/0/0 (1/0/0 slide); I 624, 1/0/0 slide; I 642, 1/1/0 slide; I 657, 1/1/0 slide. 13 sites, 26 specimens .

Previously published records from Italy: Abruzzo ( Miccoli 2002), Sardegna ( Gerecke 2014b).

Remarks: For a discussion (and revision of erroneous indications in Gerecke 2003), see Gerecke (2014b). Also, the Sicilian specimen from an interstitial dig (470 Int) is typical in comparison with A. tenerifensis Lundblad, 1962b in the presence of sclerotized muscle insertions, a relatively shorter I-L-5 (L ratio I-L-5/6, 0.9), a stouter I-L-6 (ratio L/HC [!] 3.3) and the position of the sword seta of P-4 near distoventral seta. Specimens with weakly sclerotized, in juveniles sometimes unsclerotized muscle attachments, an important feature in comparison to A. graecus (similar in a striated integument and shape of I-L, in spring I 45 coexisting with A. clavipes ) is the position of S-1/-2 side by side, in lateral view without any remarkable interspace.

Habitat : Crenobiont or crenophilous. In the study area mostly in weakly seeping rheohelocrenes, one record from the interstitial of a middle order stream. As in the Tyrrhenian islands (250-1000 m: Gerecke 2014b) also in Sicily and continental Italy at middle altitudes, 270-980 m , one record from Lazio at 150 m.

Distribution: Central and Southern Europe, everywhere rare.