New taxa of the water mite family Limnocharidae (Actinotrichida: Eylaoidea) parasitising tropical water bugs of the genus Rhagovelia Mayr, 1865 (Hemiptera: Veliidae) reveal unsuspected diversity of larval morphologies

Abstract The larval stage of Neolimnochares johnstoni Smith and Cook, 2005 is first described in detail, and the larva of a similar undescribed species, Neolimnochares sp. B, see Table 1, is recorded from Peru. Larvae attributed to Limnochares (Cyclothrix) australica Lundblad, 1941a by Martin and Smit (2002) are considered to belong to Neolimnochares Lundblad, 1941c. Neolimnocharinae subfam. n. is proposed and discussed. For larvae assigned to this subfamily, parasitic on veliid water bugs (Rhagovelia Mayr, 1865) and with extraordinary morphological modifications, new taxa are proposed: Veliacola gen. n., (V. mirificus sp. n., Madagascar); Archaeveliacola gen. n. (A. papuanus sp. n., Indonesia, A. smiti sp. n., Australia); Armaveliacola gen. n. (A. rhagoveliae sp. n., Madagascar, A. major sp. n., Madagascar, A. minor sp. n., Cameroon, Kenya); Isoveliacola gen. n. (I. costaricensis sp. n., Costa Rica, I. borneoensis sp. n., Indonesia). Additional records are: Veliacola sp. (Dominican Republic), Archaeveliacola sp. (Bolivia), and Isoveliacola sp. (Belize). Neolimnochares (Paracyclothrix) Lundblad, 1967 is synonymised with Limnochares (Cyclothrix) Wolcott, 1905, resulting in Limnochares (Cyclothrix) hyaliniseta (Lundblad, 1969) comb. n., and L. (C.) longimaxillaris (Lundblad, 1969) comb. n. (both Myanmar). LSID: http://www.zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:275E6D4B-98E7-4A26-B7C7-DABCCF73A9EA

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