New records of marine water mites (Acari: Hydrachnidia: Pontarachnidae) from the Pujada Bay (West Pacific Ocean) and the Andaman Sea (Indian Ocean)

Abstract

Water mites of the family Pontarachnidae Koenike have been found in tropical and temperate littoral habitats bordering the Mediterranean Sea, Aral Sea, Caspian Sea, Atlantic Ocean, Pacific Ocean, Red Sea, and Indian Ocean. Most species live in the marine littoral zone, but a few species are known to be from freshwater or brackish habitats. The family is represented by two genera: Pontarachna Philippi, 1840 and Litarachna Walter, 1925. So far, two species, Litarachna denhami and Litarachna sabangensis Viets, 1984 are known from India and the Philippines, respectively. Materials examined in the present study were collected among sea grasses Thalassia hemprichii (Pujada Bay) and marine macroalgae, Padina (Andaman Sea). The collected sea grasses and macroalgae were washed through 38 mu m sieves using the sea water to extract the animals and preserved in 70% alcohol; water mites were separated under a binocular microscope. All specimens are deposited in the Museum of Natural History of Podgorica (Montenegro). In this paper, new records for Pontarachna australis Smit, 2003 (Pujada Bay, west Pacific Ocean and Andaman Sea, Indian Ocean) and Litarachna denhami (Lohmann, 1909) (Andaman Sea) are given (Fig. 1). This is also the first record of the genus Pontarachna in the Philippines and India