The family Opilioacaridae (Acari: Parasitiformes) in Argentina, with description of two new species

Maria Magdalena Vázquez,Hans Klompen,Leopoldo Ferreira De Oliveira Bernardi

doi:10.24349/acarologia/20204380

Maria Magdalena Vázquez, Hans Klompen + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.24349/acarologia/20204380

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Abstract

Two new species of Neocarus, N. entrerios n.sp. and N. misiones n.sp., are described for both adult instars, with locality data for a few additional records of unidentified specimens. Most Argentinean records are from the Northern and Eastern border regions. Even so, current results suggest that opilioacarid diversity in Argentina, while modest, is likely to include several more species.

Highlights

The first species of Opilioacaridae described from the New World was Opilioacarus platensis Silvestri 1905, based on seven specimens collected from Salto, Uruguay (31.4167°S 57.0000°W) and Posadas, Misiones, Argentina (27.3667°S 55.9000°W) (Silvestri, 1905)
As expected given its age, the description of N. platensis lacks some detail in terms of relevant morphological characters, for the ovipositor, but a more troubling item is that the author failed to designate a holotype among the specimen series studied
The north temperate species N. texanus Chamberlin and Mulaik, 1942, may have a very broad range, from Central Texas, west to Arizona, and south to Guerrero, Mexico (Vázquez and Klompen, 2015), sites separated by more than 1000 km. This leaves two unanswered questions: 1) are the specimens collected from these three disparate south temperate localities conspecific, or do they represent more than one species? 2) What is the species level diversity of Opilioacaridae in the temperate regions of South America?

Summary

Introduction

The first species of Opilioacaridae described from the New World was Opilioacarus platensis Silvestri 1905, based on seven specimens collected from Salto, Uruguay (31.4167°S 57.0000°W) and Posadas, Misiones, Argentina (27.3667°S 55.9000°W) (Silvestri, 1905). As expected given its age, the description of N. platensis lacks some detail in terms of relevant morphological characters, for the ovipositor, but a more troubling item is that the author failed to designate a holotype among the specimen series studied. This could be important because Silvestri apparently did not recognize any differences among the specimens from the two localities, an issue amplified by Van der Hammen, who redescribed O. platensis based on material from a third site, Sinimbu (listed as Sinumbu), Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil (29.500°S, 52.5000°W) (Hammen, 1969). This leaves two unanswered questions: 1) are the specimens collected from these three disparate south temperate localities (separated from each other by 410–470 km) conspecific (mirroring the broad distribution of N. texanus in North America), or do they represent more than one species? 2) What is the species level diversity of Opilioacaridae in the temperate regions of South America?

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