First collections of water mites (Acari: Hydrachnidia) from Honduras: descriptions of six new species

First collections of water mites (Acari: Hydrachnidia) from Honduras indicate a rich fauna. Nineteen species from just three sites yielded six species new to science. New species described and discussed are: Hydrodroma moralesi n. sp., Flabellifrontipoda triscutata n. sp., Monatractides angelae n. sp., Pseudotorrenticola espinasseae n. sp., Atractides jenniferae n. sp. and Recifella cusucoensis n. sp.

sp. are described and new records discussed. Clearly there is much to be learned of the water mite fauna of Central America.

Materials and methods
Mites were collected using dip nets (0.3 mm mesh), sieved through Endecott sieves (30 cm diameter, 3.0 mm and 0.3 mm mesh), transferred to a white tray and live mites picked out before preservation in Koenike's solution (glacial acetic acid: alcohol: water, 1:5:4). In the laboratory mites were cleared in Lundblad's solution for between 1 and 7 days (up to 150 days) to remove lipids, washed in Koenike's solution then dissected and displayed in double coverslip mounts. Mites were dissected at the edge of a 22 mm diameter coverslip in glycerin jelly and parts orientated in the middle of the coverslip. When the jelly had set, the round coverglass was inverted on to a square 22 mm coverglass of fresh glycerin jelly. When set the double coverslip was placed on an aluminium mount over a 21 mm hole and sealed with glyceel.
The nomenclature for the descriptions follows Wiles (1997aWiles ( , 1997b. All measurements are in mm. Abbreviations are: A, antennal glandularia; D, dorsoglandularia; E, epimeroglandularia; g, lyrifissure L, lateroglandularia; R, ocularia; V, ventroglandularia; Ep, epimeron (5coxa sensu Cook, 1966); Gp, genital plate; Ib, infracapitular bay; Ib-Gp, distance between back of infracapitular bay and front of genital plates; MS, median suture from the point of fusion of epimeral sutures between first and second epimera medially to the front of the genital plates; P, pedipalp (sensu Harvey, 1996); I-Leg-6, first leg sixth segment (tarsus). Holotype slide preparations will be deposited in the Natural History Museum, London; other preparations may be held by the author prior to deposition.

Species list for Honduras
Slide preparation number prefixed by H. Etymology. Named after E. Morales for services to conservation in Honduras.
Discussion. The palp and the genital plate are the shortest and the number of acetabula per plate the fewest of all the species of Hydrodroma described. It is the only species without swimming setae or distal horns on the ejaculatory complex. The nearest species in size is H. liberiensis Cook, 1966. It has less than 30 acetabula on a single genital plate that is 50% longer than that of H. moralesi n. sp., a slender pedipalp with P4 is of typical proportions and legs with swimming setae.
Frontipoda (Flabellifrontipoda) triscutata n. sp. (Figure 2) Male. Colour blue black, body laterally compressed, length 624, width 282, height 418. Dorsal furrow with three sets of three platelets, medial platelet 2 located between anterior lateral platelets; posterior medial platelet long, located between lateral platelets 2 and 3. R2 (postocularia) located on anteromedial platelet, L1 in dorsal furrow integument with lyrifissures g2-5, all other glandularia on lightly sculptured ventral shield. Excretory pore on plate behind genital field. Ventral shield encloses genital acetabula, length genital plate  Etymology. Name refers to the three rows of three platelets in the dorsal furrow.
Discussion. This species has a unique distribution of three sets of three well-developed platelets in the dorsal furrow.
Discussion. The broad tibia of the first two pairs of legs and the pattern of fused anterior platelets are diagnostic of the species. Other species with a broad I-Leg-6 and II-Leg-6 include: M. sakina Cook, 1967 from India and the Malay Peninsula (unpublished record), M. venusta venusta (Viets, 1935), known from a single specimen from Sumatra; M. venusta africana Cook, 1966, M. stigeophora Cook, 1966and M. neostigeophora Cook, 1966 from Liberia. The new species is of similar small size and shape to M. venusta and M. sakina and has a similar cheliceral claw (not enlarged). However, the pattern of anterior platelet fusion differs from that of similar species, which show no plate fusion.
Discussion. The proportions of the pedipalp with a large terminal claw are, in contrast to other neotropical species, typical of New Guinea Recifella species. Females do not show subgeneric characters but  considers females without pronounced tubercles on P4 to belong to the subgenus Eorecifella Cook, 1980, a subgenus characterized by a lack of pronounced sexual dimorphism. R. cusucoensis has the longest internal apodemes of EpI so far described for the genus as they reach to EpIV. Pedipalp shape and narrow genital field are diagnostic of this species.