A new species of Litarachna (Acari, Hydrachnidia, Pontarachnidae) from a Caribbean mesophotic coral ecosystem

By

Pesic, Vladimir
Chatterjee, Tapas
Alfaro, Monica
Schizas, Nikolaos

Type

Article

Date of Publication

2014-7-15

Original Publication

ZooKeys

Volume

425

Pages

89--97

Subjects

Biodiversity , marine environment , Puerto Rico , taxonomy , Water mites

Contributed by

Pensoft Publishers

Language

English

Published by

Sofia, Bulgaria Pensoft Publishers

Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.425.8110

 

Abstract

New records of pontarachnid mites (Acari: Hydrachnidia) from the Caribbean island of Puerto Rico are presented. Litarachna lopezae sp. n., from substrata collected from Bajo de Sico, a mesophotic coral reef ecosystem in Mona Passage off Puerto Rico, is described as new to science. The new species was collected from nearly 70 m depth, the greatest depth from which pontarachnid mites have been found until now. In addition, a Litarachna sp. was also found in association with the tube of the polychaete Sabellastarte magnifica (Shaw, 1800) at the shallow waters of north Puerto Rico.