Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-ndw9j Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-17T19:36:28.838Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

First record of Litarachna caribica (Acari, Pontarachnidae) from the Pacific coast of Panama

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 June 2015

Vladimir Pešić*
Affiliation:
Department of Biology, University of Montenegro, Cetinjski put b.b., 81000 Podgorica, Montenegro
Tapas Chatterjee
Affiliation:
Department of Biology, Indian School of Learning, I.S.M. Annexe, P.O. – I.S.M., Dhanbad-826004, Jharkhand, India
Nikolaos V. Schizas
Affiliation:
Department of Marine Sciences, University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez, Call Box 9000, Mayagüez, PR 00681, USA
*
Correspondence should be addressed to: V. Pešić, Department of Biology, University of Montenegro, Cetinjski put b.b., 81000 Podgorica, Montenegro Email: vladopesic@gmail.com
Get access

Abstract

We documented the existence of a population of the southern Caribbean pontarachnid mite Litarachna caribica for the first time on the Pacific coast of Panama. Based on morphological observations, this is the first record of a pontarachnid mite with a trans-isthmian distribution, which can be explained by either modern biological dispersal or historical vicariance hypotheses. Litarachna caribica had either passed through the Panama Canal, successfully colonizing the opposite coast, or previously continuously distributed populations had become disjunct after the rise of the Central American land.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Cook, D.R. (1996) A freshwater species of Pontarachna (Acari, Pontarachnidae) from South Africa, with a discussion of genital acetabula in the family. Anales Instituto de Biología,Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Seria Zoología 67, 259264.Google Scholar
Davidson, I.C., McCann, L.D., Fofonoff, P.W., Sytsma, M.D. and Ruiz, G.M. (2008) The potential for hull-mediated species transfers by obsolete ships on their final voyages. Diversity and Distributions 14, 518529.Google Scholar
Hall, H.V.M. (1912) Some marine and terrestrial acarina of Laguna Beach. First annual Report of Laguna Marine Laboratory, Pomona College, Claremont, California, 1, pp. 117186.Google Scholar
Hildebrand, S.F. (1939) The Panama Canal as a passageway for fishes, with lists and remarks on the fishes and invertebrates observed. Zoologica 24, 1545.Google Scholar
Knowlton, N. and Weigt, L.A. (1998) New dates and new rates for divergence across the Isthmus of Panama. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 265, 22572263.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Knowlton, N., Weigt, L.A., Solórzano, L.A., Mills, D.K. and Bermingham, E. (1993) Divergence in proteins, mitochondrial DNA, and reproductive compatibility across the Isthmus of Panama. Science 260, 16291632.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lessios, H.A. (2008) The great American schism: divergence of marine organisms after the rise of the Central American Isthmus. Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics 39, 6391.Google Scholar
McCosker, J.E. and Dawson, C.E. (1975) Biotic passage through the Panama Canal, with particular reference to fishes. Marine Biology 30, 343351.Google Scholar
Pešić, V., Chatterjee, T., Alfaro, M. and Schizas, N.V. (2014) A new species of Litarachna (Acari, Hydrachnidia, Pontarachnidae) from a Caribbean mesophotic coral ecosystem. ZooKeys 425, 8997.Google Scholar
Pešić, V., Chatterjee, T., Ingole, B., Velip, D. and Pavićević, A. (2012a) A new species of Litarachna Walter, 1925 (Acari: Hydrachnidia) from the West Indian Coast, with a discussion on the diversity of the family Pontarachnidae Koenike, 1910. Cahiers de Biologie Marine 53, 547553.Google Scholar
Pešić, V., Chatterjee, T. and Schizas, N.V. (2008) Marine water mites (Acari: Hydrachnidia: Pontarachnidae) from the Caribbean Sea, with description of one new species. Cahiers de Biologie Marine 49, 253259.Google Scholar
Pešić, V., Chatterjee, T. and Schizas, N.V. (2012b) A new species of Pontarachna (Acari, Hydrachnidia, Pontarachnidae) from a mesophotic coral ecosystem off Vieques Island, Puerto Rico, Caribbean Sea. Zootaxa 3440, 6367.Google Scholar
Ros, M., Ashton, G., Lacerda, M., Carlton, J.T., Vázquez-Luis, M., Guerra-García, J.M. and Ruiz, G.M. (2014) The Panama Canal and the transoceanic dispersal of marine invertebrates: evaluation of the introduced amphipod Paracaprella pusilla Mayer, 1890 in the Pacific Ocean. Marine Environmental Research 99, 204211.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ruiz, G.M., Torchin, M.E. and Grant, K. (2009) Using the Panama Canal to test predictions about tropical marine invasions. Smithsonian Contributions to the Marine Sciences 38, 291300.Google Scholar
Smit, H. (2009) Water mites of the family Pontarachnidae from Singapore, with a description of one new species (Acari: Hydrachndia). Raffles Bulletin of Zoology, Supplement 22, 203205.Google Scholar
Witte, H. and Olomski, R. (1999) The evolutionary transformation of functional systems in the Parasitengona. In Needham, G.R., Mitchell, R., Horn, D.J. and Welbourn, W.C. (eds) Acarology Proceedings IX, Vol. 2. Columbus, OH: The Ohio Biological Survey, pp. 125137.Google Scholar