Atractides

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 : 299

ATRACTIDES TORRENTICOLUS LÁSKA, 1960

Species dubia

Type series: Possibly missing. Not recorded from MMB, and no information available about eventual collocation in the museums at Prague and Bratislava. Locus typicus: Czech Republic, River Moravice (Velky Kotli) 16.8.1957 1 ♀ .

Discussion: A. torrenticolus is a ‘ Tetramegapus ’ species with only two pairs of acetabula in the genital field. As mentioned by Láska, all species of this subgenus are each known from a single female. Their common character, the reduced number of acetabula, is clearly the product of misshaping. I-L-5 and -6 resembles that of A. fonticolus , but in view of the misshaped genital field and the lack of information on important characters, no decision about its eventual synonymy is possible. Láska’s figure 7C shows a pair of Vgl-1 + 2 with both setae separate from the glandular platelet, a character state never observed in any other specimen in the course of this revision. A. torrenticolus is thus a species dubia.