Water mites of the Hygrobates fluviatilis-complex are often the most ubiquitous and usually the most abundant water mite group in the running waters of the Palaearctic and Balkans. In the present study we used an integrative taxonomic approach by applying partial COI sequences (DNA-barcodes) to describe two new species of the fluviatilis-complex from the Balkan Peninsula, H. balcanicus Pešić sp. nov. (Bulgaria, North Macedonia, Greece) and H. mediterraneus Pešić sp. nov. (Montenegro). Phylogenetic analysis based on COI data placed H. balcanicussp. nov. as the sister species of the clade grouping H. turcicusPešić, Esen & Dabert, 2017 and H. ulii Pešić et al. 2019 whereas H. mediterraneussp. nov. is placed as the sister species of H. grabowskii Pešić et al. 2019, with about 20% and 13% K2P divergence, respectively, between the closest relatives.
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30 September 2020
Molecular evidence for two new species of the Hygrobates fluviatilis-complex from the Balkan Peninsula (Acariformes, Hydrachnidia, Hygrobatidae)
Vladimir Pešić,
Milica Jovanović,
Ana Manović,
Andrzej Zawal,
Aleksandra Bańkowska,
Lyubomira Lyubomirova,
Ioannis Karaouzas,
Miroslawa Dabert
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Acari
Balkan Peninsula
DNA-barcoding
new species
running waters
species delimitation
