354 
H. Smit 
Physolimnesia australis (Halik) in having four pairs 
of large acetabula (three in P. australis), and a more 
slender III-leg-6 of the male. The row of 11-14 seta 
on the medial side of IV-leg-5 is absent in australis, 
but in general the modified third and fourth legs of 
the two spedes are remarkably similar. 
Etymology 
Named after the Katherine River, which is near 
the type locality; the name is a noun in apposition. 
Genus Timmsilimnesia K.O. Viets 
Timmsilimnesia K.O. Viets, 1984: 422. 
Timmsilimnesia inga (K.O. Viets), new 
combination 
Limnesia inga K.O. Viets, 1975: 94. 
Timmsilimnesia prehendens K.O. Viets, 1984: 422. 
New synonymy. 
Material Examined 
Australia: Northern Territory: 1 $, 1 nymph, 
billabong Nourlangie Creek, Kakadu National 
Park, 20 July 1994; 9 6,5 9, small billabong, 
Gunlon, Kakadu National Park, 25 July 1994; 12,5 
nymphs, Manton Dam, 1 August 1994. 
Remarks 
Cook (1986) was the first to recognise that the 
two species were morphologically similar, 
although he did not synonymize the two species. 
Now that males of Timmsilimnesia prehendens and 
females of Limnesia inga are collected on the same 
location, it is clear that they are conspecific. 
Therefore, the new name of the species must be 
Timmsilimnesia inga (K.O. Viets). 
Both male and female were hitherto only known 
from holotypes each based on one sex, collected in 
Northern Territory and Queensland respectively. 
The males from this study measure 1200-1464 in 
length and 996-1284 in width, the females measure 
1236-2280 in length and 1080-1944 in width. No 
length and width were given by K.O. Viets (1984) 
for the male, the females are much larger than the 
holotype female from Queensland. The colour of 
the chitinized parts is not red, as reported by K.O. 
Viets (1975), but yellow. 
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 
I am indebted to Dr M.S. Harvey for his help 
with the preparations for this trip, to the Western 
Australian Department of Conservation and Land 
Management (Como), the Australian National 
Parks and Wildlife Service (Darwin) and the 
Conservation Commission of the Northern 
Territory (Palmerston) for their permission to 
collect water mites in the national parks of Western 
Australia and Northern Territory and to G.M. van 
der Pal for her assistance with the fieldwork. 
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