2021/12/20 by Vladimir Pešić, Andrzej Zawal, Ana Manović +2 · 1 voice
Agricultural and Biological Sciences · Environmental Science · #Invertebrate Taxonomy and Ecology #Parasite Biology and Host Interactions #Study of Mite Species
paper · pdf · doi:10.3897/bdj.9.e78311
openalex publication_date 2021/12/20 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/04
Water mites (Acari, Hydrachnidia) are a significant component of freshwater ecosystems inhabiting a wide range of aquatic habitats. This study provides a first comprehensive DNA barcode library for the water mites of Montenegro. DNA barcodes were analysed from 233 specimens of water mites morphologically assigned to 86 species from 28 genera and 15 families. In the course of the study, four species, i.e. Lebertia reticulata (Koenike, 1919), Atractides inflatipalpis K.Viets, 1950, A. latipes (Szalay, 1935) and Parabrachypoda montii (Maglio, 1924) were molecularly confirmed as new for Montenegro and three species, i.e. Protzia octopora Lundblad, 1954, Piona laminata (Thor, 1901) and Unionicola ypsilophora (Bonz, 1783) are new for the Balkan Peninsula. Results are analysed using the Barcode Index Number system (BIN) and the Refined Single Linkage (RESL) of BOLD. The BIN assigned sequences to 98 clusters, while the RESL reveal 103 operational taxonomic units (OTUs). Unique BINs were revealed for 72 species (83.7%), whereas twelve species (14%) were characterised by two BINs and two species (2.3%) with three BINs. Amongst the studied taxa, 14 species were found with a high intraspecific sequence divergences (˃ 2.2%), emphasising the need for additional comprehensive morphological and molecular analysis of these species.