First record of a halacarid mite Bradyagaue drygalskii (Halacaroidea, Acari) from Lützow-Holm Bay in East Antarctica

Abstract

A halacarid mite, Bradyagaue drygalskii (Lohmann, 1907), in the family Halacaridae, was discovered from the brown alga Desmarestia chordalis Hooker and Harvey, 1845, at a depth of 12 m in Lützow-Holm Bay on the East Antarctic coast during the 35th Japanese Antarctic Research Expedition in 1994. This is the first record of B. drygalskii from the region of Queen Maud Land to Enderby Land in East Antarctica. This finding supports the contention that B. drygalskii will be distributed widely in Antarctica. The results of morphological comparison and distributional records for Bradyagaue species described so far suggested that B. aspidionis Newell, 1984, and B. drygalskii are likely to be conspecific. However, further detailed comparisons are necessary to clarify the taxonomic relationship between these two species based on a greater number of individuals.