First DNA barcodes of water mites from the Indian Himalayas with description of two new species (Acari, Hydrachnidia)

ABSTRACT

In this study, the first DNA barcodes of water mites collected in Uttarakhand State of India are presented. The first data for nine species were uploaded into the BOLD Systems. Two species, Sperchonopsis himalayaensis sp. nov. (Sperchontidae) and Aturus uttarakhandensis sp. nov. (Aturidae), are described as new for science.

http://urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:5395BED3-E36B-479E-93DF-BC30DA51BAB6

KEYWORDS:

• DNA barcode
• COI
• water mites
• new species
• taxonomy

Acknowledgments

This study is supported by the “DNA-Eco” scientific project, financed by the Montenegrin Ministry of Science. PB gratefully acknowledges the financial assistance rendered by the Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB) as a major Project F. No.–ECR/2016/001291. NS and KKR also grateful to SERB(DST) for the instrument and lab facility. VP would like to thank to Milica Jovanović (University of Podgorica) for her assistance during the laboratory work. We are indebted to Elisabeth Stur (Trondheim, Norway) and Reinhard Gerecke (Tübingen, Germany) for permission to use some unpublished sequences from Norway (Project “Water M&M (University of Trondheim).” We thank two anonymous reviewers, whose constructive comments greatly improved this work.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).