Tenuipalpus budensis Ueckermann and Ripka, 2015

Ueckermann, Edward A. & Ripka, Géza, 2015, Three new species and a new record of tenuipalpid mites (Acari: Tenuipalpidae) from Hungary, Journal of Natural History 50, pp. 989-1015 : 1009-1013

Tenuipalpus budensis Ueckermann and Ripka sp. nov.

( Figure 3A–G )

Diagnosis

Female. Dorsum irregularly striate-rugose with smooth patches, complete and incomplete reticulations in between. Dorsal body setae minute and smooth, except very long and flagellate setae h2. Venter strongly striate-rugose. Ventral and genital shields also striate-rugose. Ventral and genital shields are flanked by three incomplete lines. Spermatheca with first half bulged followed by a constriction and second half flared.

Female (n = 1)

Dimensions. Length of body (v2–h1) 345; width (sc2–sc2) 171, length of gnathosoma 51; Legs: I 166; II 152 ; III 125 ; IV 134 ; setae: v2 5; sc1 5; sc2 6; c1 5; c3 4; d1 7; d3 5; e1 7; e3 5; f2 6; f3 6; h1 5; h2 115 .

Dorsum ( Figure 3A ). Dorsum irregularly striate-rugose with smooth patches, complete and incomplete reticulations in between. The dorsal body setae are minute and smooth except for h2, which is very long. Rostrum deeply emarginated with two median lobes and two sub-median lobes. Two pairs of eyes between setae sc1 and sc2.

Venter ( Figure 3B, C ). Venter strongly striate-rugose. Seta pair 3a much shorter than very long seta pair 4a. Ventral and genital shields striate-rugose and anal shields irregularly striate. Ventral and genital shields flanked laterally by three incomplete lines. One pair of aggenital, two pairs of genital and two pairs of anal setae, all smooth, aggenital setae not reaching genital setae. Outer pair of genital setae slightly anterior to inner pair. First half of spermatheca bulged followed by a constriction and flared distally ( Figure 3C ).

Gnathosoma ( Figure 3D ). Rostrum reaching basal quarter of femur I. Palp threesegmented, third segment with only a long solenidion distally, second segment with one strongly serrate seta.

Legs ( Figure 3E–G ). Counts of setae and solenidia (included in counts) on podomeres of legs I–IV: coxae 2-2-1-1, trochanters 1-1-2-1, femora 4-4-2-1, genua 2-2-0-0, tibiae 5-5-3-3, tarsi 9(ω)-9(ω)-5-5. Leg chaetotaxy as follows: trochanters I, II, IV v', III

v', l'; femora I–II d, v', bv“, l'; femur III d, ev'; femur IV ev ’; genua I–II l', l“; III and IV nude; tibiae I–II d, l', l“, v', v“; III–IV d, v', v“; tarsi I–II u', u“, p', p“, tc', tc“, ft', ft“, ω; III–IV u', u“, tc', tc“, ft'.

Seta d on tibiae I–IV and femora I–III slightly serrate but absent on genua I–II. Femora I–II with seta l' also faintly serrate. Solenidion on tarsi I and II less than half the width of segment. Dorsal setae on tarsi I–IV with ft' very long. Tarsal claws pad-like. Tarsi I and II with Iω 6 and IIω 6.

Relationship to host plant

The female was collected from the inflorescence of the perennial host plant.

Locality

Pilisszentiván, Buda Mountains, Kis-Szénás Hill, Szénás-hills European Diploma Holding Area, Pest county (Central Hungary), in magnesian limestone grassland, a dolomite grassland plant association (Festuco pallenti-Brometum pannonici Zólyomi) of the

submediterranean chalk-dolomite grassland plant community group (Bromo-Festucion pallentis Zólyomi) ( Borhidi 2003), 431° m elevation, 47 36 ʹ 09.0 ʹʹ N, 18°51 ʹ 54.4 ʹʹ E.

Type material

Holotype female, collected from Round-headed Rampion, Phyteuma orbiculare L. (Fam. Campanulaceae ), slide # 1252, coll. Géza Ripka, 22 May 2011, deposited in the Department of Plant Protection Development and Coordination, Directorate of Plant Protection, Soil Conservation and Agri-environment, National Food Chain Safety Office, Budapest, Hungary .

Etymology

The specific designation budensis refers to the Buda Mountains (Pest county), the type locality . The gender is masculine.

Remarks

Several attempts during this study to collect more specimens were unsuccessful implying it to be a rare species. However, we carefully compared it with the descriptions of all the listed species ( Mesa et al. 2009). Therefore, we still wish to publish it and if more specimens may be found in future we will revise it.

This species belongs to the caudatus- group, subgroup anoplus, of species which have one pair of 3a and one pair of 4a setae ( Meyer 1993). Tenuipalpus budensis sp. nov. closely resembles Tenuipalpus sanblasensis De Leon , Tenuipalpus . moraesi Feres and Hernandes , Tenuipalpus jianfengensis Ma and Yuan , Tenuipalpus hornotinus Chaudhri , and Tenuipalpus placitus Chaudhri , in having all dorsal setae, except h2, very short. However, it differs from them all mainly in the dorsal and ventral ornamentations, namely irregular striate-rugose with smooth patches and complete and incomplete reticulations, and strongly striate-rugose, respectively. In most of the other species it is mainly striate, but the prodorsum of T. sanblasensis has distinct L-shaped ridges medially and T. moraesi has a wrinkled ornamentation dorsally, and is striate ventrally. The female further differs from T. moraesi and T. placitus in that the aggenital setae are shorter than the distance to the genital setae and the rostrum reaches only to the basal quarter of femur I whereas in T. moraesi , T. jianfengensis , T. hornotinus and T. placitus it reaches to at least half the length of femur I. Unfortunately, the spermatheca was not described for these species, which may be an additional distinguishing character.

Figures

Figure 3. Tenuipalpus budensis sp. nov. Female. (A) Dorsal view. (B) Ventral view. (C) Spermatheca. (D) Palp. (E) Right leg I. (F) Right leg III. (G) Right leg IV.