Limnesia (Limnesia) auspexa Cook, 1983

Smit, Harry & Pešić, Vladimir, 2020, New records of water mites from New Zealand, with the description of three new genera and ten new species (Acari: Hydrachnidia), Acarologia 60 (4), pp. 903-950 : 906

Limnesia (Limnesia) auspexa Cook, 1983

( Figures 1 A­D)

Mamersella anomala Hopkins, 1967 – Panesar (2004).

New records. South Island. 1/0/0, Okuri Hill Creek NW, North Papawai Bay, 40°59.864 ′ S 173°45.898 ′ E, alt. 232 m asl, 27­ii­2020.

Male: Idiosoma 688 long and 608 wide, ventrally 697 long. Integument lineated, brownish. Dorsal shield 620 long and 502 wide, with three pairs of glandularia and the postocularia. Dorsal furrow with five pairs of glandularia. Gnathosoma not attached to a protrusible tube. Gnathosomal bay medially with a cleft. Medial margin of Cx­III straight, Cxgl­4 on Cx­III near suture line of Cx­III/IV; posterior margin of Cx­IV rounded. No ridge anterior to insertions of fourth legs. Genital field with three pairs of acetabula, the anterior pair more distanced from the second pair than the second and third pair, anterior margin straight; gonopore 110 long. Length of P1­5: 24, 86, 60, 132, 41. P2 with a short, stout seta, P4 ventrally with a small setal tubercle. Length of I­leg­4­6: 92, 110, 130 (till tip of segment). Length of IV­leg­4­6: 130,

156, 162; IV­leg­6 with a 92 long terminal seta. Fourth leg segments with numerous stout setae. Excretory pore incorporated in the ventral shield.

Distribution. Previously known from three localities from North Island. Hopkins (1967) described this species as Mamersella anomala , but according to Panesar (2004) this is a Limnesia . However, Limnesia anomala is preoccupied by L. anomala Koenike, 1895 . As L. auspexa Cook is conspecific with Hopkins’s species, this becomes the first available name. According to Hopkins (1967) the holotype is a male, but it is clear that this is a female Limnesia . Therefore, the male has not yet been described, and a description is given here.