Two further Neocaeculus species (Acari: Prostigmata: Caeculidae) from Barrow Island, Western Australia C.K. Taylor To cite this version: C.K. Taylor. Two further Neocaeculus species (Acari: Prostigmata: Caeculidae) from Barrow Island, Western Australia. Acarologia, Acarologia, 2014, 54 (3), pp.347-358. 10.1051/acarologia/20142136. hal-01565723 HAL Id: hal-01565723 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01565723 Submitted on 20 Jul 2017 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution - NonCommercial - NoDerivatives| 4.0 International License ACAROLOGIA A quarterly journal of acarology, since 1959 Publishing on all aspects of the Acari All information: http://www1.montpellier.inra.fr/CBGP/acarologia/ [email protected] Acarologia is proudly non-profit, with no page charges and free open access Please help us maintain this system by encouraging your institutes to subscribe to the print version of the journal and by sending us your high quality research on the Acari. Subscriptions: Year 2017 (Volume 57): 380 € http://www1.montpellier.inra.fr/CBGP/acarologia/subscribe.php Previous volumes (2010-2015): 250 € / year (4 issues) Acarologia, CBGP, CS 30016, 34988 MONTFERRIER-sur-LEZ Cedex, France The digitalization of Acarologia papers prior to 2000 was supported by Agropolis Fondation under the reference ID 1500-024 through the « Investissements d’avenir » programme (Labex Agro: ANR-10-LABX-0001-01) Acarologia is under free license and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons-BY-NC-ND which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Acarologia 54(3): 347–358 (2014) DOI: 10.1051/acarologia/20142136 TWO FURTHER NEOCAECULUS SPECIES (ACARI: PROSTIGMATA: CAECULIDAE) FROM BARROW ISLAND, WESTERN AUSTRALIA Christopher K. TAYLOR (Received 08 May 2014; accepted 10 June 2014; published online 30 September 2014) Dept of Environment and Agriculture, Curtin University, Perth, WA 6845, Australia. [email protected] ABSTRACT — Two new species of Neocaeculus (Acari: Caeculidae) are described from Barrow Island, Western Australia: Neocaeculus kinnearae and N. nudonates. Neocaeculus kinnearae is a likely epigean species closely related to N. knoepffleri; N. nudonates is likely to be a sand-burrowing species. Neocaeculus knoepffleri and N. bornemisszai are also recorded from Barrow Island. KEYWORDS — Rake-legged mites; Acarina; taxonomy INTRODUCTION Its terrestrial invertebrate fauna has been exten- sively surveyed in recent years as part of the mon- The Caeculidae are a cosmopolitan family of rela- itoring requirements for the construction of a natu- tively large, predatory mites (Coineau, 1974a; Otto, ral gas refinery (Majer et al., 2013). Due primarily to 1993), commonly known as ’rake-legged mites’ in its arid climate, the northwest sector of Australia is reference to the rows of enlarged, often spine-like sparsely settled, with few major centres of popula- setae present on their forelegs. These are used in tion. As a result, much of its fauna has been only the capture of smaller arthropods (Otto, 1993). Cae- intermittently studied, and the Barrow Island fauna culids are most diverse in hot, dry environments is one of the region’s best known. (Hagan, 1985) and as such may be expected to be widespread in arid Australia. However, Australia’s In addition to the new species described below, caeculid fauna remains little studied, with only six specimens of Neocaeculus knoepffleri Coineau and et al. species described to date (Taylor , 2013). The Enns, 1969 (Fig. 1A) and N. bornemisszai Coineau Neocaeculus imperfectus most recent of these was and Enns, 1969 (Fig. 1B) have also been collected et al. Taylor , 2013, which was described from Bar- on Barrow Island. Both these species were orig- row Island in northern Western Australia. The cur- inally described from inland in the Kimberley re- Neo- rent paper describes two further species of gion, and their collection on Barrow Island indi- caeculus from this location. cates that they are probably widespread in north- Barrow Island is Western Australia’s second ern Western Australia. Specimens of N. knoepffleri largest offshore island, and was established as a have been observed live at night on coastal lime- wildlife reserve in 1908 (Moro and Lagdon, 2013). stone rocks, holding their front legs extended in the http://www1.montpellier.inra.fr/CBGP/acarologia/ 347 ISSN 0044-586-X (print). ISSN 2107-7207 (electronic) Taylor C.K. FIGURE 1: Neocaeculus species found on Barrow Island: A – Neocaeculus knoepffleri (tritonymph, collected September 2012); B – Neocaeculus bornemisszai FIGURE 1.(adult, Neocaeculus collected September species 2012). found on Barrow Island: (A) Neocaeculus knoepffleri (tritonymph, mannercollected described September by Otto 2012); (1993) (B) for NeocaeculusMicrocaeculus bornemisszaiof the (adult, length collected of the supporting September structure 2012). (e.g. eu- pica Otto, 1993. pathidium at 0.3 of a given leg segment indicates that it is about one-third down the segment from With five recorded species, Barrow Island is now the proximal end). home to over half the known diversity of Caecul- idae from Australia. This further underscores the Paratypes of Microcaeculus pica were supplied for likelihood that the true diversity of Australian cae- examination by Bruce Halliday (CSIRO, Canberra). culids is much higher than currently realised. Neocaeculus kinnearae new species (Figures 2-3) METHODS Holotype — Female, Barrow Island, Western Aus- Specimens were collected using pitfall traps, and tralia, 20°41’30"S 115°25’09"E, 19-30 March 2012, were observed in 85 % ethanol after partial clear- N. Gunawardene, C. Taylor, pitfall trap (WAM ing in 50 % lactic acid using a Nikon SMZ1500 T132729; slide-mounted). stereo microscope; measurements and photographs were taken using the NIS-Elements D program. The Paratypes — 1 female, Barrow Island, West- holotypes of the new species and one paratype ern Australia, 20°49’37"S 115°26’48"E, 19-30 March of Neocaeculus nudonates were further cleared in 2012, N. Gunawardene, C. Taylor, pitfall trap (WAM 10 % potassium hydroxide, then relaxed in water T132730; in ethanol); 1 female, Barrow Island, West- and slide-mounted in CMC-10 mounting medium. ern Australia, 20°41’26"S 115°25’01"E, 17-29 March Measurements are given in micrometres; positions 2013, N. Gunawardene, C. Taylor, pitfall trap (WAM of selected features are described as a proportion T132731; in ethanol). 348 14 Acarologia 54(3): 347–358 (2014) FIGURE 2: Neocaeculus kinnearae: A – Dorsal view; B – diagram of dorsum of idiosoma showing positions of setae and lyrifissures; le = lateral eyes; C – venter of idiosoma: AD = adanal sclerite, AG = aggenital sclerite, G = genital sclerites, PS = pseudanal sclerite; D – lateral view of anterior of idiosoma, showing palp and anterior bothridial seta bo. Solenidion indicated by !; eupathidia indicated by ζ; me = median eye. 349 Taylor C.K. FIGURE 3: Legs of the left side of Neocaeculus kinnearae in dorsal view. Selected proventral setae v’ marked on legs I and II to facilitate orientation. Eupathidia marked with ζ; tibial solenidia marked with '; tarsal solenidia marked with !. 350 Acarologia 54(3): 347–358 (2014) Etymology — Named for Adrianne Kinnear, bearing seta h medially together with single median who identified many of the mites from Barrow Is- pluriposterior sclerite bearing seta hs. Seta ds ab- land and incited my own interest in mites. sent. Diagnosis — In the key to Australasian Caecul- Venter — Epimeres dark brown; surrounded idae provided by Taylor et al. (2013), Neocaecu- by darker cream integument; venter of idiosoma lus kinnearae would key out to N. knoepffleri, to largely darker cream except genital and adanal scle- which it is very similar. It differs from N. knoepf- rites dark brown, aggenital and pseudanal scle- fleri in its smaller size (about 1.1-1.2 mm in idio- rites grey-brown. Median eye present below ante- soma length vs 1.5-1.6 mm in N. knoepffleri) and lack rior projection of aspidosomal sclerite, seta Po re- of a retroventral spinose seta on femur I. Neocaecu- duced to minute spine above median eye; both- lus kinnearae also has the major setae less sharply ridial setae bo lateral to median eye elongate, dis- spinose than those of N. knoepffleri, with the tips tally fusiform but not distinctly capitate. Infracapit- baculate rather than acute. Neocaeculus bornemisszai ulum with two pairs of setae arranged in a trans- has shorter, more clavate major setae on the legs verse line. Epimeres I and II fused; epimere I with (Coineau andEnns, 1969). Neocaeculus kinnearae dif- six elongate setae; epimere II with one elongate seta. fers from N. luxtoni Coineau, 1967, N. imperfectus Epimeres III and IV fused, each with one elongate and Microcaeculus pica in having bothridial seta bo seta. Genital valves with five to seven pairs of seti- elongate and non-capitate. It differs from N. john- form